Wildfires News

September 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Wildfire Smoke Exposure Boost Risk of Mental Illness in Youth, Study Suggests

Sep. 12, 2024 — Each additional day of exposure to wildfire smoke and other extreme forms of dirty air boosts risk of mental illness in youth a little more, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study of ...

Scientists Uncover Hidden Source of Snow Melt: Dark Brown Carbon

Sep. 4, 2024 — Researchers have quantified the effect of dark brown carbon on snow ...

Health Impacts of Repeated Wildfires and Smoke Exposure

Aug. 28, 2024 — Public health researchers have highlighting the compounded effects of frequent wildfires and smoke exposure on physical and mental health, local economies and community resilience in Southern ...

New Gels Could Protect Buildings During Wildfires

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers have developed a sprayable gel that creates a shield to protect buildings from wildfire damage. It lasts longer and is more effective than existing commercial ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:26pm EDT

Wildland Firefighters Hit Their STRIDE

Sep. 16, 2024 — You're a hotshot working to contain a wildfire. The conflagration jumps the fire line, forcing your crew to flee using pre-determined escape routes. At the start of the day, the crew boss estimated ...

Action Plan to Help Patients With Lung Disease Cope With Wildfire Smoke

Aug. 19, 2024 — A multidisciplinary team has developed an action plan to help patients with respiratory diseases mitigate the consequences of poor air quality from ...

Less Severe Forest Fires Can Reduce Intensity of Future Blazes

Aug. 19, 2024 — Low- and moderate-severity forest wildfires can reduce the intensity of future fires, according to new research on ...

Climate Change Raised the Odds of Unprecedented Wildfires in 2023-24

Aug. 13, 2024 — Unprecedented wildfires in Canada and parts of Amazonia last year were at least three times more likely due to climate change and contributed to high levels of CO2 emissions from burning globally, ...

Canadian Wildfires Are Affecting US Air Quality and Raising Health Concerns

Aug. 11, 2024 — Climate-driven wildfire events are rapidly transferring harmful particulate matter containing toxic chemicals over long distances, compromising air quality in the New Jersey and New York City areas, ...

New York City's Fireworks Display Prompts Temporary Surge of Air Pollution

Aug. 6, 2024 — In 2023, roughly 60,000 firework shells exploded above Manhattan's East River as part of Macy's Fourth of July show. The resulting air pollutant levels were many times higher in the hours after the ...

California a Botanical and Climate Change Hot Spot

July 29, 2024 — Climate-driven shifts in California's biodiversity call for innovation and continued environmental stewardfship, says a new study. California's 30x30 Initiative and efforts to harmonize biodiversity ...

Solar Absorption by Black Carbon in Fire Clouds Quantified

July 25, 2024 — Aerosol scientists quantify the extent of light absorption by black carbon in fire clouds to better model climate impacts of extreme wildfire ...

Researchers Warn of Unprecedented Arsenic Release from Wildfires

July 23, 2024 — The wildfire season of 2023 was the most destructive ever recorded in Canada and a new study suggests the impact was unprecedented. It found that four of the year's wildfires in mine-impacted areas ...

Researchers Enhance Tool to Better Predict Where and When Wildfires Will Occur

July 22, 2024 — A newly enhanced database is expected to help wildfire managers and scientists better predict where and when wildfires may occur by incorporating ...

Scientists Use AI to Predict a Wildfire's Next Move

July 22, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new model that combines generative AI and satellite data to accurately forecast wildfire ...

Wildfire Smoke Has a Silver Lining: It Can Help Protect Vulnerable Tree Seedlings

July 15, 2024 — Forest scientists studying tree regeneration have found that wildfire smoke comes with an unexpected benefit: It has a cooling capacity that can make life easier for vulnerable ...

Complex Impact of Large Wildfires on Ozone Layer Dynamics

July 12, 2024 — In a revelation highlighting the fragile balance of our planet's atmosphere, scientists have uncovered an unexpected link between massive wildfire events and the chemistry of the ozone layer. ...

Forest Carbon Storage Has Declined Across Much of the Western U.S., Likely Due to Drought and Fire

July 11, 2024 — Forests have been embraced as a natural climate solution, due to their ability to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, locking it up in their trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. ...

Wildfires Increasingly Threaten Oil and Gas Drill Sites, Compounding Potential Health Risks

June 25, 2024 — More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western U.S. are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, a new study has found, and some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future ...

Fuel Treatments Reduce Future Wildfire Severity

June 24, 2024 — There is a common belief that prescribed burning, thinning trees, and clearing underbrush reduce risks of the severity of future fires. But is that true? A new project analyzing 40 studies where ...

Large Wildfires Create Weather That Favors More Fire

June 18, 2024 — A new study shows soot from large wildfires in California traps sunlight, making days warmer and drier than they ought to ...

New Way to Spot Beetle-Killed Spruce Can Help Forest, Wildfire Managers

June 13, 2024 — A new machine-learning system can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate ...

Fighting Fires from Space in Record Time: How AI Could Prevent Devastating Wildfires

June 5, 2024 — Scientists are getting closer to detecting bushfires in record time, thanks to cube satellites with onboard AI now able to detect fires from space 500 times faster than traditional on-ground ...

Novel Mobile Air Monitoring Technology Yields Greater Insight Into Post-Disaster Pollution Levels

May 30, 2024 — A team has found that high resolution mass spectrometry could be a valuable tool for identifying and assessing air-borne contaminants produced by natural and human-made ...

Aerosol Pollution, Greenhouse Gases Must Be Reduced Simultaneously to Keep Forest Fires in Check

May 29, 2024 — If we want cleaner air, fewer forest fires, and less severe climate change, a new study shows we must reduce aerosol pollution and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide at the same ...

Smoke Covered 70% of California During Biggest Wildfire Years

May 22, 2024 — As much as 70 percent of California was covered by wildfire smoke during parts of 2020 and 2021, according to a new ...

How Wildfires Change Soil Chemistry

May 14, 2024 — Severe wildfires can drive chemical changes in soil that affect ecosystem recovery and risks to human health. A new study finds broader surveillance and modeling of these changes could inform ...

Improved Wildfire Smoke Model Identifies Areas for Public Health Intervention

May 9, 2024 — The Canadian wildfires of June 2023 exposed a large portion of the Northeastern United States to unprecedented levels of smoke. A new model that combines wildfire smoke forecasts and data from ...

Wildfires in Wet African Forests Have Doubled in Recent Decades

May 2, 2024 — Climate change and human activities like deforestation are causing more fires in central and west Africa's wet, tropical forests, according to the first-ever comprehensive survey there. The ...

Anthropologist Documents How Women and Shepherds Historically Reduced Wildfire Risk in Central Italy

Apr. 26, 2024 — Fire management lessons from the past could help to improve resilience as the Mediterranean faces increased fire risk from climate change. How traditional land management practices once greatly ...

Modeling Broader Effects of Wildfires in Siberia

Apr. 24, 2024 — As wildfires in Siberia become more common, global climate modeling estimates significant impacts on climate, air quality, health, and economies in East Asia and across the northern ...

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb ...

Researchers Shine Light on Rapid Changes in Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems

Apr. 16, 2024 — Arctic and boreal latitudes are warming faster than any other region on ...

CO2 Worsens Wildfires by Helping Plants Grow

Apr. 16, 2024 — By fueling the growth of plants that become kindling, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, according to a new ...