Wildfire seasons, amplified by climate change, are getting hotter, longer, and drier, and Canada’s resources are buckling under the weight of the number and scale. In the last three years, Canada has spent more days at National Preparedness Level (NPL) five—the highest, meaning domestic resources are maxed out—than in the combined years of the decade before.

A decade ago, destructive fire seasons were seen as flukes—until 2023, the worst fire season in Canada’s history. That year was followed by two more extreme fire seasons. All told, 8 percent of Canada’s forests have burned in the last three years, which works out to be about 4 million hectares a year—four times the rate in the 1970s.

This summer, with the combination of a “Super El Niño” and persistent drought on Canada’s West and East Coasts, scientists are predicting high intensity wildfires across the country—and particularly in the west.