Wildfires,Smoke & Emissions

The 2023 Canadian wildfire season shattered every previous record by an enormous margin. Approximately 18 million hectares burned across virtually every forested province and territory — an area larger than England, and more than double the previous Canadian record from 1989. Nearly 480 megatonnes of carbon were released — 5× Canada's 20-year average and 23% of global wildfire carbon emissions for the entire year. The resulting smoke turned New York City skies orange on June 7, 2023, produced air quality emergencies across the US eastern seaboard affecting 100+ million people, crossed the Atlantic to Europe, and was detectable in Asia. A landmark 2025 Nature study attributed an estimated 82,100 premature deaths globally to chronic smoke exposure from this single fire season.

Australia's Black Summer fires burned 18.6 million hectares — the largest fire event in Australian recorded history and one of the largest in any Southern Hemisphere country in the satellite era. Smoke from the fires circumnavigated the globe, reaching South America within two weeks. Research published in Nature showed the fires released approximately 715 million tonnes of CO2 — more than Australia's entire annual emissions from all other sources combined. A World Weather Attribution study found climate change made the fire conditions at least 30% more likely to produce the record heat that drove the fires. Over 1 billion animals were estimated killed.

Brazil's 2019 Amazon fire season triggered an international political crisis after Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported 80,626 fire hotspots — an 84% increase over the same period in 2018. Smoke from fires blanketed São Paulo (2,700 km away) in darkness at 3 PM. The fires were driven by a combination of historic drought and a dramatic increase in deforestation fires — burning cleared land — under President Jair Bolsonaro's government, which had weakened environmental enforcement and fired the head of INPE after he published the fire data. G7 leaders discussed intervention. The fires consumed primary Amazon rainforest storing carbon accumulated over centuries, releasing it irreversibly in hours.

Russia's 2021 fire season was the worst in the CAMS satellite record, with 18.8 million hectares burned across Siberia — primarily in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), the coldest permanently inhabited region on Earth. Temperatures in Yakutia reached 38°C (100°F) in June — a World Meteorological Organization-confirmed new Arctic record. Copernicus estimated that fires in Russia's Sakha Republic alone released approximately 505 megatonnes of carbon in July and August 2021. Total Russian wildfire CO2 emissions reached ~970 megatonnes — a dataset record. Smoke reached the North Pole and was detected across the Arctic, depositing black carbon on sea ice. The fires were burning in permafrost zones — releasing ancient carbon stored for tens of thousands of years.

California's 2020 fire season burned over 4.2 million hectares — more than double any previous season in state history. The August Complex became California's first "gigafire" (over 1 million acres). Lightning-triggered fires from an August 2020 storm (10,849 strikes in 72 hours) ignited dozens of simultaneous complexes. The season released approximately 91 megatonnes of CO2 — roughly 30% of California's annual greenhouse gas budget. Smoke affected air quality across the entire western United States, Pacific Northwest, and was tracked crossing the Pacific to Europe.

The 2015 Indonesian fire season was one of the most damaging peatland fire events in the satellite era, producing carbon emissions that temporarily exceeded total US fossil fuel CO2 emissions for weeks. Amplified by the strongest El Niño since 1997, fires burned deep into the peat soils of Borneo and Sumatra — releasing carbon stored for thousands of years. Peat fires burn underground and are nearly impossible to extinguish with conventional methods, smouldering for months. The smoke emergency affected 11.3 million people across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Visibility in some Borneo cities dropped to near zero for weeks.

The January 2025 Los Angeles fires — driven by exceptional Santa Ana winds and extreme drought — became the most costly insured wildfire event in global history. The Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire burned simultaneously, destroying entire neighbourhoods. PM2.5 levels across greater Los Angeles reached 250–300 µg/m³ during peak burning — 10× the WHO 24-hour limit. Smoke analysis revealed elevated concentrations of toxic combustion byproducts from burning structures including asbestos, lead, heavy metals, PFAS (forever chemicals), and flame retardants — creating a highly toxic post-fire environment. The ECMWF described the event as driven by a "hydro-climate whiplash" — an exceptionally wet spring/summer followed by record dry autumn and winter.

In late March 2025, a series of wildfires affected southern regions of South Korea, causing severe losses to human lives and property. CAMS monitoring showed the fires led to 2025 already being the year with the highest estimated annual total carbon emissions in the GFAS dataset for South Korea — at 0.8 megatonnes of carbon. This is four times higher than typical annual total estimated fire emissions of around 0.2 megatonnes, reflecting the large scale of fire emissions over just a few days. The fires illustrated how climate-driven fire risk is expanding beyond traditionally fire-prone zones into East Asian temperate forests.

The world's largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal, experienced a staggering 980% increase in wildfires in 2024 according to Brazil's Institute for Space Research (INPE). Over 1.5 million hectares burned. CAMS data showed fires in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul alone releasing a record-breaking 3.3 megatonnes of carbon by mid-year — before the typical onset of the fire season. Bolivia also faced its worst fire year in two decades, losing over 15 million hectares of rainforest and savanna to fires. The total 2024 global carbon emissions reached nearly 2,000 megatonnes.

The Alexandroupolis/Dadia fire was described by EU officials as the largest single fire recorded in the EU at that time. Combined Greek fire carbon emissions for July-August 2023 were the third highest on record at approximately 2 megatonnes of carbon. Smoke from the fires, along with simultaneous Spanish and Portuguese fires, combined with Canadian smoke crossing the Atlantic to create an exceptional regional air quality crisis across Europe. The fires destroyed the Dadia Forest Reserve — one of Europe's most important raptor sanctuaries. Fires were simultaneously burning on Rhodes (20,000 tourists evacuated) and across Thessaly.

The August 2025 fires across the Iberian Peninsula drove EU wildfire carbon emissions to their highest level since EFFIS records began. Spain alone reached its highest annual fire emissions in 23 years. The 1,079,538 hectares burned within the EU in 2025 was the highest total in the EFFIS record. PM2.5 concentrations across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula far exceeded WHO guidelines, with smoke travelling to France, the UK, and northwestern Europe. Copernicus CAMS tracked the smoke plumes in near-real-time. Cyprus, during the same summer, produced its entire annual emissions total in just two days of burning.

The Lahaina fire is the deadliest US wildfire in over a century — killing 115 people in a historic coastal town in under 12 hours. Non-native invasive grasses (buffelgrass, guinea grass) that replaced native dryland forest across Maui's lowlands created the continuous fuel bed that enabled catastrophic fire spread. The smoke from burning urban structures contained an exceptionally toxic mixture: lead paint, asbestos, synthetic materials, vehicle chemicals, and industrial compounds from commercial properties. The EPA, FEMA, and Hawaii Department of Health spent months on toxic ash and soil remediation. The combination of structural fire and wildfire created one of the most chemically complex smoke events ever documented in a populated area.

Canada's 2025 fire season was the third consecutive year of exceptional wildfire activity, releasing approximately 250 megatonnes of carbon by October 1 — Canada's second highest annual emissions in the CAMS dataset (after only 2023). Saskatchewan and Manitoba reached cumulative record levels by mid-summer — over 66 Mt and 44 Mt respectively. CAMS tracked several smoke plumes crossing the Atlantic, with an initial plume reaching southern Europe and the Mediterranean around May 18, and confirmed observations in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean the following day. The fires continued a pattern of boreal forest fire escalation driven by climate warming.

Ukraine's war-damaged landscape experienced significant wildfire activity in 2025, with Ukraine accounting for approximately 30% of the total 2,242,195-hectare area burned across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa monitored by EFFIS. Conflict-related land abandonment and damaged infrastructure impaired fire response capacity. The Balkan region — Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia — also experienced extreme fires during summer 2025, contributing to the record EU regional total. These events illustrated the increasing geographic expansion of high-intensity fire risk beyond the traditional Mediterranean fire belt.