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And along with the warmer the temperature comes an extended fire season.

“In Alberta, our fire season used to start April 1. It now officially starts March 1 and not this spring, but in the spring and winter of 2015/2016, we had actionable fires in February,” said Flannigan.

Natural Resources Canada

“The warmer it gets the more lightning we see and, everything else being equal, more lightning equals more fire.”

As wildfires become more frequent, the result is larger annual areas burned and an increase in the number of large fires, considered to be greater than 200 hectares in size.

“We’re already seeing it since the last 30 to 40 years. More recently, things like Fort McMurray, B.C. last year, B.C. this year and we’re seeing more impacts,” said Flannigan.

“Even if we stop producing greenhouse gases today, we will continue to warm for 50 to 100 years because there’s lags in our climate system.”

Flannigan said the reality is fire is a part of our future and a term people often use is this is our “new normal,” but he doesn’t like the use of it.

“It sounds like it’s a plateau. But actually, we’re on a trajectory, perhaps a downward spiral. Things could get a lot worse,” said Flannigan.

ALBERTA’S SITUATION

According to Marc-André Parisien, research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, a federal agency, climate change isn’t something exclusively for the future, it’s happening right now and we can see the effects.

“There’s been a pretty significant increase in mean annual temperature in Alberta over the last 50 years,” said Parisien.