Wildfires burned 18.5M hectares of land in 2023. What will happen come thaw?

Wildfires leave a mark, and after a season that saw 18.5 million hectares of land burned, some experts are warning about the effects they can have in future extreme weather events.

The wildfire season of 2023 was like no other in Canada’s history.

With roughly 18.5 million hectares of Canadian land burned, this year was the worst wildfire season ever recorded. It surpassed the previous record of 7.6 million hectares scorched in 1989.

Wildfires leave a mark and their side effects can be felt in future extreme weather events, which could play out as early as this spring, some experts say.

“If we’ve got larger or more frequent severe climate-associated disturbances in the landscape … the likelihood of having intersecting landscape disturbances becomes higher,” said Uldis Silins, professor of forest hydrology at the University of Alberta.

“So that notion of flooding after fire or fire after severe flooding, these are the kinds of things that we’re likely to see more of in the future. They’re ones that, frankly, we have very little experience with.”

Wildfires can change the characteristics of the landscape in ways that influence future extreme weather events, John Pomeroy, Canada research chair in water resources and climate change, told Global News.

When wildfires occur, the loss of the tree canopy leads to a much denser snowpack, he explained. The needles and branches that hold the snow back no longer exist, so more snow accumulates on the ground.

That snow also melts faster as it receives more sunlight given there’s less shade provided by the canopy above it, Pomeroy added.