“The amount of acres burned in the Northwest Territories is six times greater than the 25-year average to-date according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.
Boreal forests like those in the Northwest Territories are burning at rates “unprecedented” in the past 10,000 years according to the authors of a study put out last year. The northern reaches of the globe are warming at twice the rate as areas closer to the equator, and those hotter conditions are contributing to more widespread burns.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s landmark climate report released earlier this year indicates that for every 1.8°F rise in temperatures, wildfire activity is expected to double.
Hot and dry conditions are helping forest fires spread in British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
There are 60 wildfires in B.C., which have affected 7,840 hectares of land. In Alberta, just six fires have scorched 12,000 hectares while in the N.W.T., one of the worst fire seasons in recent memories has seen more than 842,200 hectares destroyed. There have been a total of 173 fires, and just 30 are out.
We have a team on Greenland ice right now, and until mid August, tasked with measuring the impact of dark particles on ice melt. We are asking for support to increase our abilities to detect smoke landing on Greenland ice. The support will help us afford expanding our laboratory work.
