Wildfires and smoke waves fueled by climate change likely to become more frequent

Wildfires in Canada have been raging on for more than a month, burning through swaths of land that amount to more than 5 million football fields. This year, Canada's fire activity is near historic levels ahead of the official start of the wildfire season, fueled by dry weather, wind, and extreme heat.

"Those were started by temperatures that were five times more likely due to climate change," said Dr. Andrew Pershing, vice president for science at Climate Central. "So there definitely is a climate fingerprint on this event."

Climate change is also warming nighttime temperatures, decreasing the overnight humidity that can help firefighters gain control over wildfires.

"Being on a warmer planet with a warmer atmosphere, you're more likely to get the dry conditions that can lead to these wildfires," Pershing said.

High-altitude jetstream winds have carried smoke more than 1,000 miles from the Canadian fires, coating North Carolina with dangerous smoke that can be especially risky for children, the elderly, and those with respiratory diseases.

The Triangle was in a code red air quality alert for most of Wednesday and is expected to remain in code orange for the rest of the work week.

"What we've seen in air quality is that the air travels sometimes vast distances across continents," said Shawn Taylor with the NC DEQ's Division of Air Quality.

Officials are warning residents to avoid outside activity due to fine particles that can damage lungs and enter the bloodstream.

"We are seeing an increase in the number of these sort of exceptional wildfire events that are imposing air quality concerns," Taylor said.

According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, wildfire seasons are expected to continue to get worse, trending over longer periods of time with a greater number of acres burned each year.

Fire weather days, with conditions that are best to spark and sustain wildfires, are becoming more common in the East. That's spurring an increase in wildfire risk coupled with development in fire-prone areas.

"There's more potential for fires in this area to impact people, even though they might be smaller or rarer than the fires in the West," Pershing said.

Though humid weather helps to dampen conditions that increase wildfire risks, regions in North Carolina experience several weeks of fire weather each year on average.

The U.S. is 2.5 degrees warmer today than it was in 1970, and hotter temperatures have a direct influence on fire behavior.

North Carolina was ranked third by Climate Central, behind only Texas and California, for the greatest number of households in the wildland urban interface (WUI), areas most prone to climate change and increase in fire weather days.

Now, the southeast has about twice as many homes in high-risk areas as it did three decades ago.