PREVIEW

British Columbia finds itself besieged by wildfires for the second year in a row - with smoke reaching down into the U.S.
Typically, wildfire season in the province doesn't reach its peak intensity until later in the summer, but this year, mid-May has already witnessed swathes of the western Canadian landscape smothered in smoke.
Satellite imagery captured by NASA's Aqua satellite's MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on 11 May, 2024, depicted billowing smoke emanating from fires surrounding the community of Fort Nelson, with the ominous plume drifting eastward into Alberta. The smoke's reach extended as far as the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States, sparking concerns over air quality in multiple states.
Among the most alarming of these fires was one raging southeast of Fort Nelson, threatening not only the town itself but also a nearby First Nation community, comprising a total population of 3,400 individuals. Fuelled by parched vegetation and exacerbated by strong winds from a passing cold front, this fire erupted on May 10, prompting swift evacuation orders from Canadian authorities.
Cliff Chapman, the Director of Provincial Operations for British Columbia's Wildfire Service, issued a stark warning via a Facebook video update, saying: “Due to the aggressive and extreme fire behavior, we strongly recommend that people avoid travel in and around Fort Nelson. The fuels are as dry as we have ever seen. The wind is going to be sustained, and it is going to push the fire toward the community.”
Meanwhile, to the north of Fort Nelson, several other large fires continued to devour tens of thousands of hectares each. Some of these fires, categorized as "holdover" blazes, lay dormant beneath winter snow before resurging with a vengeance, fueled by vegetation desiccated by a prolonged multi-year drought.
The recurrence of such a dire scenario mirrors the events of 2023 when British Columbia faced similarly intense fires in May. Mark Parrington, an atmospheric scientist with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), shared data revealing that daily fire intensity and carbon emissions from the province's wildfires have reached alarming levels in May 2024. By mid-month, carbon emissions from British Columbia's fires had surpassed 5 megatons since the beginning of May, marking the highest May total in 22 years.