There was a total of 6,125 wildfires reported across Canada during 2025, exceeding both the number of fires in 2024 as well as the 10-year average. In more ways than one, the Canadian wildfire season broke records and weather conditions contributed to wildfires starting earlier and persisting through the fall. Persistent drought, warm weather and thunderstorms ended up being the main drivers of this year's Canadian wildfire season.

Typically, the Canadian wildfire season starts as early as March 1 in the Canadian Prairies and most wildfires die down by the end of October. However, 2025 got off to an early start in Alberta when grassfires were being reported in southern areas in late February. Wildfires this early can be a result of little to no snow cover and fuels, like grass, are still dormant and can easily ignite if the right weather conditions unfold. Above-average temperatures, low relative humidity, and gusty winds can all contribute to late fall or early spring wildfires.

Through the rest of the spring, wildfires continued to pick up across the country, although fire activity closely followed the 10-year average in terms of the number of fires and area burned. Across the Canadian Prairies, persistent upper-air ridging led to rapid drying and above-average temperatures. According to National Wildland Fire Situation report released on Nov. 19, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) stated that large areas of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba received 25-50% of the climatological normal precipitation for the month of May.

Below-average precipitation in the spring across the Canadian Prairies set the stage for wildfires to pick up in the early summer. By the end of May into early June, thunderstorm activity started to increase, and more wildfires were being ignited by lightning strikes as forest fuels started to dry out as well. Persistent high pressure kept conditions on the drier side across central Canada as moisture from the Gulf of Alaska or Western Canada moved either north or south of the high pressure. Storms only brought sporadic and isolated rainfall to parts of central Canada, often not enough to make significant impacts on reducing wildfire risks.

By July, mixed conditions allowed wildfires to expand in some areas while rainfall reduced it in others. Northern British Columbia, Alberta and western Ontario saw drier-than-normal conditions; however, more rainfall started hitting southeast British Columbia, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. August became a turning point for the central Canadian Prairies as widespread rainfall started moving through, allowing firefighters to get wildfires under control. The CIFFC reported that northeast Alberta, much of Saskatchewan, and western Manitoba received 115-200% of their average rainfall totals during August.

One area of Canada that did not get relief from dry conditions in August included New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They had abnormally dry and warm conditions and this resulted in near-record low precipitation amounts for the month. It is relatively uncommon for Atlantic Canada to have high intensity fires that are difficult to control, but that was the case across eastern New Brunswick and northern Nova Scotia this past August.

As Canadian wildfires raged through the spring and summer, wildfire smoke would drift south into the northern United States and create periods of poor air quality and hazy skies. From the Upper Midwest to the Northeast, air quality alerts were issued as northwest or northerly winds dragged the smoke south from Canada.

States, like Minnesota, had long stretches of unhealthy air. Minnesota Public Radio reported that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency had its longest air quality alert on record in late July through early August this year. The agency first started issuing these alerts in 2008 and this year beat the previous record that was set in 2021 at five consecutive days. The air quality alert lasted seven days, as smoke from Canada got trapped across the state. To read more about Canadian wildfire smoke affecting Minnesota, you can visit: https://www.mprnews.org/….

During the fall months, cooler weather and more rainfall wrapped up the wildfire season across Canada. A few fires continued to burn in September, especially across Atlantic Canada where precipitation was below average. The storm track picked up across the Canadian Prairies and eastern Ontario by October though. Throughout November, precipitation started to trend closer to average or slightly above average for Atlantic Canada.

In total, about 8,815,000 hectares (21,782,339 acres) of land burned from wildfires across all of Canada in 2025. This is more than double the 10-year average that sits at 4,077,877 hectares (10,076,653 acres). Drought and above-average temperatures driven by high pressure or upper-air ridging proved to be detrimental to fighting the spread of wildfires in Canada this year and when thunderstorms moved across areas that had dry fuels, lightning ignited new fires as well.

To view the full National Wildland Fire Situation report from Natural Resources Canada, you may visit: https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/….

Teresa Wells can be reached at teresa.wells@dtn.com

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