Articles | Volume 18, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-8037-2026
Data description article
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11 Nov 2026
Data description article | Highlight paper |  | 11 Nov 2026

State of Wildfires 2025–2026

Chantelle A. Burton, Francesca Di Giuseppe, Matthew W. Jones, Douglas I. Kelley, Maria L. F. Barbosa, Joe McNorton, Bob Potts, Carlota Segura-Garcia, John T. Abatzoglou, Iulian Alin Rosu, Niels Andela, Liana O. Anderson, Sally Archibald, Esther Brambleby, Emilio Chuvieco, Andrew Ciavarella, Hamish Clarke, Francisco de la Barrera, Carlos M. Di Bella, Enza Di Tomaso, Kebonye Dintwe, Tim S. Doherty, Victoria M. Donovan, Jonathan M. Eden, Paulo M. Fernandes, Lukas Fiedler, Louis Giglio, Olivia Haas, Douglas S. Hamilton, Stijn Hantson, Sarah Harris, Andrew J. Hartley, Theo Keeping, Crystal A. Kolden, Jean-Luc Kouassi, Elena Kukavskaya, Seppe Lampe, Zhongwei Liu, Guilherme Mataveli, Sarah Meier, Duarte Oom, Mark Parrington, Yuquan Qu, Victor Resco de Dios, Julien Ruffault, Mojtaba Sadegh, Cristina Santín, Fernando Sedano, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Patrícia S. Silva, Fiona R. Spuler, Carmen B. Steinmann, Veerachai Tanpipat, Miguel Ángel Torres-Vazquez, Marco Turco, Guido R. van der Werf, Dave van Wees, Sander Veraverbeke, Jakob B. Wessel, and Bo Zheng

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Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T., Rupp, D. E., O'Neill, L. W., and Sadegh, M.: Compound Extremes Drive the Western Oregon Wildfires of September 2020, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2021GL092520, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL092520, 2021. 
Abatzoglou, J. T., Kolden, C. A., Cullen, A. C., Sadegh, M., Williams, E. L., Turco, M., and Jones, M. W.: Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally, Nat. Commun., 16, 6390, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61608-1, 2025. 
Agência para a Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais: Relatório de Atividades do Sistema de Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais, Portugal, https://www.agif.pt/pt/relatorios-anuais (last access: 22 July 2026), 2026. 
Andela, N. and Jones, M. W.: Update of: The Global Fire Atlas of individual fire size, duration, speed and direction, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17669692, 2026. 
Andela, N., Jones, M. W., and van Wees, D.: State of Wildfires 2025–2026: Forest Carbon Project Exposure to Fire, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21430353, 2026. 
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Editorial statement
State of Wildfires 2025–2026: A Quiet Global Fire Year, Devastating Regional Extremes Despite global burned area and fire carbon emissions falling 18% and 20–31% below historical averages, respectively, devastating wildfire extremes affected Canada, Europe, and South America. The State of Wildfires 2025–2026 report combines satellite observations, climate attribution, and future projections to reveal how climate change amplifies regional wildfire risks, providing critical insights for preparedness, adaptation, and mitigation.
Short summary
The third State of Wildfires report examines extreme wildfire events from 2025 to early 2026. It analyses key regional events in Midwestern Canadian Shield Forests, Northwest Iberia, and Chilean Temperate Forests and Matorral, assessing their impacts, drivers, and attributing them to climate change. Climate change greatly increased the likelihood of these fires, and without strong mitigation, such events will become more frequent.
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