Energetically extreme fires drive disastrous societal impacts

Abstract

Societally disastrous fires are often physically extreme. Using a global fire events dataset spanning 2002–2025, we demonstrate that 66% of disaster-linked fires rank in the top 0.5% globally for size, peak daily speed, or peak daily energy. Fire energy emerges as the dominant driver of these disasters, with the median energy of disaster-linked fires ranking in the 99.8th percentile of fires globally. In temperate conifer forests, primarily those in Western North America, the burned area from energetically extreme fires more than doubled during this period. The Global South accounted for 95% of total population exposure and 76% of powerline exposure to energetically extreme fires. These findings underscore the need for improved extreme fire prediction and mitigation efforts to protect lives, homes, and livelihoods.

Polar front jet regulates tropical sea surface temperature impacts on South China extreme precipitation
Xuefeng Liu, Zhiwei Zhu, Shaobo Qiao +1
Communications Earth & Environment1 Nov 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0General earth scienceNatureCrossref
Extreme North American heatwaves in 1941 and 2021 drove widespread but contrasting impacts
Sam Anderson, Shawn M. Chartrand
Communications Earth & Environment19 Sep 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textClimate sciencePMC
Contrasting impacts of Asian sulfate aerosols on regional summer extreme precipitation under different climate backgrounds
Feifei Luo, Manoj Joshi, Bjørn H. Samset +6
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics27 Oct 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Climate scienceCopernicusCrossref
The commons at the intersection of forest fires and land tenure: insights from Galicia (Northwestern Iberia)
Diego Cidrás, Rubén C. Lois González
Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies3 Sep 2026Peer-reviewedHAL deposit licenceFull textClimate scienceHAL
Designing a rapid response process for urgent policy-relevant knowledge needs: A case study on deadwood and forest fires
R. Dianoux, L. Brotons, S. Corticeiro +11
Environmental Science & Policy4 Sep 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textEnvironmental science & pollutionHAL

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{yin2026energetically,
  title = {{Energetically extreme fires drive disastrous societal impacts}},
  author = {Cong Yin and John T. Abatzoglou and Calum X. Cunningham and Matthew W. Jones and Mojtaba Sadegh},
  journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04217-0},
  url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04217-0},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Energetically extreme fires drive disastrous societal impacts
AU  - Cong Yin
AU  - John T. Abatzoglou
AU  - Calum X. Cunningham
AU  - Matthew W. Jones
AU  - Mojtaba Sadegh
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/02
JO  - Communications Earth & Environment
DO  - 10.1038/s43247-026-04217-0
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04217-0
AB  - Societally disastrous fires are often physically extreme. Using a global fire events dataset spanning 2002–2025, we demonstrate that 66% of disaster-linked fires rank in the top 0.5% globally for size, peak daily speed, or peak daily energy. Fire energy emerges as the dominant driver of these disasters, with the median energy of disaster-linked fires ranking in the 99.8th percentile of fires globally. In temperate conifer forests, primarily those in Western North America, the burned area from energetically extreme fires more than doubled during this period. The Global South accounted for 95% of total population exposure and 76% of powerline exposure to energetically extreme fires. These findings underscore the need for improved extreme fire prediction and mitigation efforts to protect lives, homes, and livelihoods.
SN  - 2662-4435
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite