Wildfire spread in Canada is largely driven by weather. Hotter, drier conditions result in higher spread potential, and fires that occur on days of extreme fire weather are more likely to threaten human lives and infrastructure.
Under climate change, research suggests that western North America will experience more frequent and severe extreme fire weather events.
In this study we use General Circulation Models (GCMs) to investigate trends in the frequency and magnitude of extreme
fire weather events in Wells Gray Provincial Park, British Columbia (BC) over the next century.
We assess trends in the annual extreme values (95th percentile) of the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System. As a proxy for extreme fire weather events, we also investigate the frequency of weather-based Potential Spread Days (PSDs) identified using FWI System variables.
