Over the last few years, extreme heatwaves and drought have been leading to longer and severe wildfire seasons across the globe. In 2021, wildfires were reported in North America, many parts of Europe and Australia.
Australia’s fire season continued from 2020 into early 2021. The 2021 Wooroloo bushfire at Werribee Road, Wooroloo, in February, was the biggest of them in 2021. It burnt out an area of over 10,500 hectares.
The wildfire season in California, in the U.S., experienced an unusually early start amid an ongoing drought. It began in January and went on till October. The 2021 season outpaced the 2020 season, which itself was the largest season in the state’s recorded history, as multiple fires including the Dixie Fire. McFarland Fire. Caldor Fire, and others raged on, forcing evacuation of thousands of people and destruction of thousands of acres of forest. In July, Canada too battled dozens of blazes in British Columbia and Ontario provinces.
Thousands of miles away in Siberia, the fire season started in late April and accelerated dramatically in mid-June. The Siberia wildfire broke a record for annual fire-related emissions of carbon dioxide. The usually hot Mediterranean region experienced higher than usual temperatures last summer, triggering wildfires in Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. The heat combined with dry conditions turned the Mediterranean vegetation into a tinderbox. The wildfires in Turkey and Greece were described as the worst in at least a decade. Italy and Lebanon also witnessed widespread wildfires in August.
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