As Los Angeles continues to battle one of the most destructive wildfires in its history, experts say the devastation signals a troubling trend fuelled by a larger climate crisis.
Last year alone, nearly 6,000 wildfires scorched Canada, while early estimates of the damage from the current Los Angeles blaze range from US$135 billion to $150 billion — a number that is still climbing.
It’s a sobering reality, one that Gordon McBean, a climatologist and professor at Western University, says underscores the urgent need to address extreme weather events.
“The increasing number of extreme events is really a concern,” McBean told CTV News. “The World Economic Forum’s most recent statement of the biggest risks facing the globe over the next 10 years is extreme weather events.”
McBean serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.
He says temperatures are increasing around the world, some at faster paces than others. He cautions these events as the utmost concern and a wake-up call for what could continue in years to come.
Here’s a break down of why these wildfires are getting worse.
The planet keeps getting warmer
A recent report the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Service, the United Kingdom's Meteorology Office and Japan's national weather agency found that Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024, surpassing a long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
McBean warns that warming is hitting Canada even harder than the global average, suggesting the changes in Canadian temperatures are “roughly twice as much as that.”
He explains, “the changes In the Canadian arctic may be three to four times as much.”
Canada also saw record-breaking heat waves across Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic coast in June 2024.
It was so hot that experts from Environment Canada concluded that the June 17-20 heat wave was “much more likely” to be caused by human-made climate change.
A month later, Alberta’s Jasper National Park suffered a wildfire that destroyed 30 per cent of the town’s local homes and businesses.
Officials say that hellish storm saw flames as high as 100 metres above the forest's canopy which later accelerated towards the townsite.
What causes wildfires and why are they picking up?
Wildfires ignite when three key elements come together: natural fuels like wood or grass, oxygen, and an ignition source, such as extreme heat or human activity.
“The actual source of the (Los Angeles) fire is not totally clear, but it can often start by a lightning storm, or it can start by an accidental fire that was started in somebody’s backyard,” McBean said.
Wildfire expert Mike Flannigan says lightning strikes are expected to become more frequent as the planet warms. "A warmer world means more fire," he told The Canadian Press in July.
Warmer-than-average temperatures, low snowpack, dry soil, and worsening drought conditions are also contributing factors, according to Natural Resources Canada.
“They are caused by the warming conditions, the slope of the winds blowing down from the mountain slopes and… the fiery particles,” McBean adds.
What’s makes California so vulnerable to wildfires?
California’s intense climate and prolonged dry seasons create ideal conditions for wildfires. The state’s vegetation dries out late in the season, setting the stage for fires to spread rapidly.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA also reinforces this explanation.
“Climate change is increasing the overlap between extremely dry vegetation conditions later in the season and the occurrence of these wind events,” he said in a recent address posted to his YouTube channel.
However, McBean also notes a different factor, insisting that the way Los Angeles is constructed can also play a role.
“The trees in this case are one of the major problems (in Los Angeles); the fact that there are palm trees in everyone’s backyard,” McBean said. “Once (the fire) gets initiated somewhere, it can just propagate across the urban areas in way we hadn’t seen usually, in the past.”
“The way the city is constructed makes it very vulnerable and we have to find ways to reduce the vulnerability of these cities.”
With files from The Canadian Press
