Exclusive:UK will see ‘extreme’ wildfires like Mediterranean lasting ‘into autumn’ in future as temperatures rise

The wildfire season in the UK “will extend into the autumn” in future and be more like Mediterranean regions due to rising temperatures, experts have warned.

Dr Gareth Clay, Reader in Physical Geography at the University of Manchester, said there will be more days in the year with “very high” fire danger and consistently higher temperatures means the length of the fire season will increase.

He told NationalWorld that the UK is likely to see “more extreme fire behaviour” including longer flame lengths, which will make “control and suppression more challenging”.

Darren Evans, Professor of Ecology and Conservation at Newcastle University, also confirmed that climate models are predicting summers in the UK will “continue to become hotter, drier and more like those of southern Europe” which will mean that wildfires “may well increase in frequency here”.

The warnings come after intense wildfires have spread in Canada with hundreds of forest fires burning and smoke travelling into America resulting in a number of air quality alerts issued since May.

Millions of people in the U.S. and Canada awoke to hazy conditions on Tuesday morning (7 June) as smoke from the wildfires billowed from the south, causing dangerous breathing conditions especially in New York City.

Dr Clays said the UK has “always had wildfires” but “not at the scale as we are currently seeing in Canada”. By comparison, wildfires in the UK are “small and often less than one hectare, however we do get large landscape fires usually in semi-natural grasslands, heathlands or moorland.”

He warned that it is imperative to develop “new tools and systems to forecast severe wildfire conditions” over the coming years so that the UK can be better prepared for the growing risk of wildfires. He added that this will include management of fuel and preparedness of wildfire professionals in advance of the wildfire season.

Temperatures reached historical records last year and it is likely that these will increase over the coming decades causing more wildfires.

Last year climate experts told NationalWorld that extreme heat in the UK “will be the new norm” after the Met Office recorded the hottest ever day last summer when temperatures reached 40.3C at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

Professor Evans said the trend of increasing wildfires “recorded each year in the UK” is “linked to the changing climate and is likely to continue.”

In 2020 scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Met Office Hadley Centre, University of Exeter, Imperial College London, and CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, found that all the studies show links between climate change and increased frequency or severity of fire weather.

Professor Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts Research at the Met Office Hadley Centre and co-author of the report, said wildfires are “becoming more severe and widespread due to climate change” and limiting global warming to well below 2C “would help avoid further increases in the risk of extreme fire weather.”