This Incident Brief examines the rapid escalation of Canada’s 2026 wildfire season and its transboundary smoke impacts. After a slow start, wildfire activity surged following the late-June North American Heat Dome. By 21 July, 3,915 fires had burned nearly 3.04 million hectares, with Ontario experiencing particularly severe conditions driven by high temperatures and dry weather. Smoke spread across Canada and the United States, affecting major cities including Toronto and New York. During 13–18 July, more than 769 million person-days of exposure to moderate or worse air quality were estimated, while nearly 106 million person-days were exposed to unhealthy, very unhealthy, or hazardous conditions between 15 and 17 July. The Brief highlights the disproportionate impacts on remote and Indigenous communities and calls for stronger wildfire prevention and response, evacuation preparedness, resilient infrastructure, public-health protection, and international cooperation as climate change increases wildfire and smoke risks.
Climate change has intensified and increased the frequency of extreme heat and wildfire smoke events, posing growing risks to health in carceral settings where infrastructure limitations and regulatory gaps heighten vulnerability. This study characterized temporal trends and geographic patterns in extreme heat and wild...
Rachel Sklar, S. Kramer, Marissa L. Childs et al.· Environmental Research Commu...· 0 citations
The 2020 wildfires caused widespread elevated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations across the western U.S. The Colorado Front Range experienced multiple smoke episodes from nearby fires and fires hundreds of kilometers away. Multiple days (88 total) with elevated PM2.5 along the Front Range occurred in 2020 b...
Brandon A. McGuire, Jeffrey R. Pierce, B. Ford et al.· Journal of Geophysical Resea...· 0 citations
Wildfires have become more frequent, larger, and intense in recent decades, with this trend likely to continue worsening. In Arizona, recent wildfires have significantly damaged roads, impacting infrastructure, public safety, and the economy. Climate change, with prolonged drought and extreme weather, combined with lan...
Wildland–urban interface fires are becoming more frequent, and their impacts on adjacent urban centers are increasing. In January 2025, the Eaton and Palisades fires burned over 18,000 structures and 15,000 hectares of urban and wildlands and blanketed parts of Southern California, USA, in smoke and dust. Here, we co...
Catherine Banach, Kyle Caulson, L. Thapa et al.· ACS ES&T Air· 0 citations
Increasing wildfire activities in the United States have generated far-reaching effects on air pollution and human health. While prescribed fires are used as a preventive strategy to reduce wildfire risks, the health impacts of their smoke remain uncertain. Small-scale case studies indicate that prescribed fires genera...
Ting-Hsuan Chang, Ming-Hao Qiu, Ya-Guang Wei et al.· 0 citations
Escaped powerline‐caused fires (EPFs) are increasing in fire‐prone regions, including Alberta, Canada, underscoring growing tensions between expanding powerlines and managing wildfire risk. As fire‐conducive weather becomes more frequent, it remains unclear how future infrastructure can be planned to minimize wildfire...
Xue-Zheng Zong, Xian-Li Wang, D. Castellanos-Acuña et al.· Geophysical Research Letters· 0 citations
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