2023 is Canada's worst wildfire year ever. Is this the new normal?

Is this the new normal? 2023 is Canada's worst wildfire year ever.

CTV News on Youtube has the story.

Marieke deRoos with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre discusses the state of wildfires in Canada.

It seems that beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada has been affected by an ongoing, record-setting series of wildfires. As the worst wildfire season in recorded Canadian and North American history surpassing the record held by the 2020 California wildfires, all thirteen provinces and territories have been affected, with large fires in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. On June 25, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre declared the 2023 wildfire season was the worst in Canada's recorded history, surpassing the 1989, 1995, and 2014 fire seasons.

As of August 11, 5,650 fires had burned 13,475,670 hectares (33,299,106 acres), about four percent of the entire forest area of Canada and more than six times the long-term average of 2.14 million ha (5.3 million acres) for that time of the year. Of the 1,121 active wildfires, 729 were really deemed "out of control". International aid has certainly helped reduce the impact of the fires.

Smoke emitted from the wildfires has caused air quality alerts and evacuations in Canada and the United States. By late June it had crossed the Atlantic reaching Europe.

A lot of the forest fires are started by humans.