Previous thread:
Wildfires
43 responses |
Started by patrick - June 28, 2026, 12:23 p.m.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/121185/
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I'm unable to directly copy just the maps below from this site. However, once copied here as a whole(together), THEN I can copy them individually.
I normally try to avoid copying almost EVERYTHING like I did below in a post because it's like, 10 posts worth of space and some of our longer threads already require readers to scroll a mile down for the latest one.
Since I already copied it and I really feel that all this data provides the most comprehensive understanding that NOBODY at any media or internet source provides with their coverage of the latest extreme wildfire outbreak that represents a point in time and geography while ignoring the big picture.
Don't be misled by that statement about my opinion. I'm convinced that increasing CO2 and global warming/climate change in dry(cold) places is increasing wild fires, especially the intensity:
By metmike - June 28, 2026, 5:59 p.m.
but again, ONLY showing examples of that and NOT showing the rest of the story is cherry picking and not honest, authentic science.
Cherry picked data on climate change(fake climate crisis) is 95%+ of what we get in today's world NOT authentic science.
Wildfires
Explore global and country-level data on the extent of wildfires and how they’ve changed over time.
https://ourworldindata.org/wildfires
A wildfire is an uncontrolled burn of vegetation, which includes the burning of forests, shrublands and grasslands, savannas, and croplands.
Wildfires can be caused by human activity — such as arson, unattended fires, or the loss of control of planned burns — and natural causes, such as lightning.
The spread of wildfires, once ignited, is determined by a range of factors, such as the amount and types of dry vegetation in the surrounding area, wind direction and speed, moisture levels, and heat. The amount of area burned by wildfires — and the impacts on ecosystems — is driven by a combination of weather patterns, human activity, the management of vegetation and landscapes, and responses to suppress their spread.
Humans are affected by wildfires both directly and indirectly. In most years, several hundred people die directly from the fire. Far more — typically tens or hundreds of thousands are evacuated, or in some cases, permanently displaced from their homes. Wildfires also emit particulates and local air pollutants that are damaging to human health. These fires also emit carbon dioxide — a drive of climate change — and can disrupt or damage ecosystems.
On this page, we look at data on wildfires' extent and how they are changing over time.
This data is updated frequently, including some charts on a weekly basis.
See all interactive charts on wildfires ↓
To track the progression of wildfires over the course of the current year and understand the historical trends in these fires, we’ve published a range of charts that we will update frequently.
Most of this data is sourced from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). This is a joint initiative of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space program.
GWIS detects wildfires through the use of satellite imagery1 and provides excellent, up-to-date reports on wildfire extent, emissions, and pollution at a very high resolution. Here, we visualize its national, regional, and global summaries. Detailed mappings of active wildfires are also available on its website.
A useful way of tracking the evolution of wildfires across the year is to look at their week-by-week progression. This allows us to compare the extent of wildfires at a given time this year to the same period in a previous year.
It lets us see whether wildfires have started earlier or later than in previous years and whether they’re tracking above or below what we might expect from historical records.
In the chart below, you can see the cumulative area of land burned by wildfires by week. The horizontal axis starts on week 1 (January 1st) and continues to 52 (the last week of December). Each line represents one year and shows the cumulative area burnt by any given week in that year.
You can explore this data for any country in the interactive chart. What you’ll find is that wildfires start at different times depending on the region. Peak wildfire season in Europe, for example, tends to be from June to August. In Southern Australia, it tends to be later in the year, coinciding with the South Hemisphere’s spring and summer months. You can also explore this data expressed as a share of the total land area.
Cumulative area burnt by wildfires in hectares.
How much area is burned by wildfires each year?
In the chart below, you can see the annual totals since 2012.
The data for the current year is also included to allow you to put this year’s current burn figures into context. It will be updated frequently, with the date of the latest published figures shown on the chart. Obviously, this means the final year of data is incomplete until the end of the fire season in each respective country.
Area burnt by wildfires in hectares. The 2026 data is incomplete and was last updated 27 July 2026.
It’s useful to put the total extent of wildfires in the context of total land area: what share of land is burned each year?
In the chart below, you can explore this data by country and region.
Africa tends to be the region with the largest share of area burned — typically ranging from 6% to 8% each year. Figures tend to be lower in other regions but can vary a lot from year to year.
It’s important to note that the same land area can burn multiple times over successive years. So, a rate of 5% burn per year doesn’t mean that 50% of a country is burned over a decade. Some areas will burn multiple times over that period, while others will never be exposed.
The total area consumed by wildfires is recorded for each fire event, even if fires occur in the same locationmultiple times. The 2026 data is incomplete and was last updated 27 July 2026.
The spread of a wildfire, once ignited, will be influenced by many factors. Natural phenomena such as the type of vegetation, weather conditions, and the intensity of heat will influence how well the fire will be contained. Certain types of vegetation, for example, burn more easily than others. The effectiveness of the local fire containment management strategies will also play a role. This means some wildfires end up being significantly larger than others, and the impact can vary across different regions and countries.
In the chart below, you can explore how the average land area burnt per wildfire varies across different countries and regions. As before, the current year’s data is included but will remain incomplete until the end of the fire season. You can further explore in this scatterplot how the same number of wildfires can lead to significantly different amounts of land being burnt per wildfire.
The average area burnt per wildfire, in hectares. The 2026 data is incomplete and was last updated 27July 2026.
When “wildfires” are mentioned, people often picture forest fires. But lots of other ecosystem types can burn. Much larger areas of grasslands and savannas are burned each year than forests.
In the chart below, you can see the area burned in any given year by the type of land cover.
This can vary a lot depending on a country’s landscape. Savannas, for example, are much more dominant in Africa and South America America. In Oceania, it’s shrubs and grasslands. In Europe and North America, large areas of croplands are often burned.
Total area of land that was burned as a result of wildfires each year. This captures all vegetationburning of a certain size; some planned and agricultural burns are captured, however a lot of croplandburning is too small-scale to detect with satellites.
Wildfires can lead to large emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), as the carbon stored in the vegetation — trees, grasslands, or crops — is released into the atmosphere when burned.
How much carbon is emitted from wildfires depends on a range of factors: the amount of material burned, as well as the type. A hectare of carbon-rich forest might emit more CO2 than a hectare of cropland.2
Calculating the amount of carbon released from wildfires is difficult. Researchers can use several methods to estimate it. They can, for example, use a combination of satellite measurements and atmospheric models. Or measure the amount of vegetation before and after a fire to estimate how much has been lost. Finally, they might use more direct measurements of the heat released from a fire to estimate the amount of vegetation that burned; this allows them to estimate how much carbon was released. Carbon Brief provides a detailed explanation of how scientists estimate these figures.
CO2 emissions from wildfires — as estimated by the Global Wildfire Information System — are shown in the chart below.
Wildfires globally add around 5 to 8 billion tonnes of CO2 each year. For context, globally, we emit around 37 billion tonnes of CO2 from fossil fuels and cement yearly.
While it’s tempting to compare these numbers directly, that is not always appropriate, because some emissions from wildfires can be offset in later years by the regrowth of vegetation. This is not the case for fossil fuels: most of the carbon they emit persists in the atmosphere for centuries or more. The contribution of wildfire emissions to climate change is, therefore, a more complex balance between how burning and revegetation are changing over time. You can also track the evolution of CO2 emissions from wildfires across the year week by week.
Carbon dioxide released by wildfires in tonnes. The 2026 data is incomplete and was last updated 27July 2026.
The burning of biomass emits air pollutants such as black carbon, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These compounds can be damaging to human health, resulting in respiratory problems, and have been linked to premature death from non-communicable conditions such as heart disease and strokes.3
One major pollutant of concern is called PM2.5. This is fine particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. These very small particles are particularly damaging because they can penetrate deeply into the lungs.
In the chart below, we show estimates of the amount of PM2.5 that is emitted from wildfires across the world.
PM2.5 emissions represent the quantity of fine particulate matter (diameter less than 2.5 micrometers)released by wildfires, in tonnes. The 2026 data is incomplete and was last updated 27 July 2026.
We send two regular newsletters so you can stay up to date on our work and receive curated highlights from across Our World in Data.
There is increasing concern about the impacts of global warming on wildfire frequency and severity. Factors such as increased heat, humidity, the drying effect on vegetation, and wind patterns can all affect the risk of large wildfires.
However, some observers have noted that globally, the amount of area burned by wildfires each year has gone down over the last few decades.
If you look at statistics from the Global Wildfire Information System shown in the chart here, since the early 2000s, there has been a noticeable decline in the annual extent of land affected by wildfires.4
To understand what’s going on, it’s useful to look at how areas burnt have changed across different landscapes. In the chart below, we see the amount of area burned by land cover. You can see that most of this decline has come from shrublands, grasslands, and croplands (with small declines in savannas). Forest fires have been relatively stable.
Much of this decline has occurred in Africa and, to a lesser extent, in Oceania. The data suggests small declines in Europe, too.
In a paper published in Science, researchers note this same trend: “Unexpectedly, global burned area declined by ∼25% over the past 18 years, despite the influence of climate.”5 They, too, point out that this is largely driven by a decline in burn rates in grasslands and savannas as a result of the expansion and intensification of agriculture.
This highlights the strong role that human activity and land use management play in wildfire extent, alongside weather- and climate-related factors. Both factors must be considered when trying to minimize the damage of increasing fire risk in a changing climate.
Total area of forests, savannas, shrublands/grasslands, croplands, and other land that have been burnedas a result of wildfires each year.
Area burned by wildfires by land cover type
Share of the total land area burnt by wildfires each year
Cumulative area burnt by wildfires in hectares.
OK, I figured out how to get a version of the maps I wanted to show individually by loading it on another source and copying:
Cumulative area burnt by wildfires by week
So the point is obvious. CNN and other media sources are using the historic heat wave in Europe their top story this Summer. This is justified because of it being unprecedented and impacting so many people in such a negative way.
However, the MANNER in which they do it is with dishonest science or else just ignorant science to push a fake climate crisis.
The CNN article connects the record wildfire season the the record heat wave. But they don't show the trend in Europe and they don't show the rest of the world.
More to come with editing.
Picking just 1 place at 1 time frame which is the OPPOSITE of the trend is cherry picking!
Whole lot going on when you look at the whole world!
I'd never really thought much about fire in the Congo/Angola region. Figured they had enough other problems.
Russia & Canada have the massive empty forests. Russia seems quiet this year, which is keeping the world totals down.
The LA fires, eg, were a bigger story in the US for obvious reasons.
Thanks for a lot of food for thought.
& it looks like the Madrid fires are going out. That city of 7 million people came pretty close-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj638jx0l53o
The Beeb piece covers France & Spain. 
Thanks very much, patrick.
This is another excellent topic/posts from you. I'll fix the first post and make more comments ASAP.
This blog discusses current weather, weather prediction, climate issues, and current events
July 27, 2026
Are the Recent Northwest Wildfires a Sign of Global Warming? The Science Says No
During the last few weeks, a series of wildfires have occurred over the region.
Today's satellite imagery shows where the fires were burning (orange dots), with smoke plumes quite evident. Most of these fires began in grass/range vegetation.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2026/07/are-recent-northwest-wildfires-sign-of.html?m=1
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I'll have to disagree a bit with one of my favorite sources. Only because he fails to mention the additional fuel caused by the massive increase in plant growth from the increasing CO2.
Also because this is an area with ACCELERATING global warming in the Summer (because CO2 warms dry air much more than humid air) to dry that vegetation out compared to no global warming from the increase in CO2.
By metmike - June 28, 2026, 5:59 p.m.
Also see that completely printed out below again since it's a huge deal for understanding the authentic physics/science.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Global wildfire data+West
By metmike - Aug. 2, 2026, 5:04 p.m.
AI Overview
This makes the entire West look like it's on fire!
However, this is the history for the entire fire season, with some of the blazes contained/out. Go to the link below and hit the fire logo for more info. The bigger ones are the biggest fires. Yellow circles are new fires.
https://data.usatoday.com/fires/
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/7334974ba06a40c0a3290c732710ae55
Let's not forget Alaska which is experiencing accelerated global warming too because its a cool place and cool places are warming fastest because cool air can't hold as much H2O. H2O/water vapor swamps the radiation absorption bands that overlap with CO2 and reduces the warming from CO2. CO2 doesn't have to compete as much with H2O in dry air.
1. Climate change IS increasing the intensity of wildfires for certain IN THE UNITED STATES WEST. CO2 is a beneficial gas that is greening up the planet and massively increasing crop yields/food production. Basically an increase of every 5 parts per million equates to an increase of around 1% in foliage. Going from around 290 ppm to 430 ppm is +140 ppm that equates to +28% more foliage. Since all animals eat plants or something that ate plants, this is a wonderful blessing.
But NOT when it comes to wildfires. More foliage = more fuel. Also, woody stemmed plants(trees) have the most accelerated growth of all. Many trees are growing 50% faster than they were 100+ years ago because of climate change, mainly from the added CO2. This is good for regrowing forests (harvested for timber for instance or destroyed from a wildfire) but this is MORE FUEL for a wild fire.
2. The United States West is one of the places heating up the most from the increase in CO2 because the air masses are so dry to begin with. Humid places are not heating up as much because the radiation absorption bands for CO2 are already partly saturated by the H2O.
Why the Forcing from Carbon Dioxide Scales as the Logarithm of Its Concentration
https://romps.berkeley.edu/papers/pubdata/2020/logarithmic/20logarithmic.pdf
The radiationabsorptionbands of CO2 are almost saturated in the warm/humid areas of the planet because they overlap with the H2O absorptionbands. This is why the warming has mostly been in the higher latitudes.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longwave_Absorption_Coefficients_of_H2O_and_CO2.svg
You can see the overlap in the chart above. There is a LIMIT to how much radiation any absorption band can absorption band can absorb up to 100%. If it's saturated by H2O already, you can add as much CO2 as you want but that absorption band will not absorb any more heat radiation.
This is why the coldest (DRIEST) places in the Northern Hemisphere are heating up the most, in the coldest times of year...........and the deserts that are the driest.
The pattern below shows that its the very high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere that are being warmed the most by a wide margin. (the coldest places in the coldest times of year).
This is what the temperature changes/anomalies look like from global warming the past 140 years. Highest latitudes warming the most because the cold, DRY air doesn't have much H2O to saturate the radiationabsorptionbands compared to the warm, humid areas, where those absorptionbands are often nearly saturated from H2O which overlaps with the CO2 absorptionbands.
This video doesn't show the warming in the dry West very well but I'll find additional data that does show that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haBG2IIbwbA
3. For every +1 Deg C of warming, the atmosphere can hold around 7% more moisture. With saturated air masses like the one that just dumped 8" of rain at our house in 72 hours, we might speculate that means 7% more rain in 2026 or +.56 more compared to 7.44 in 1926.
All things are definitely NOT equal and this is a great discussion that explains why. In the dry West, there might be more moisture in the air but the elevated temperatures cause a LOWER relative humidity making it harder to saturate the air in order to make rain!
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-investigating-climate-changes-humidity-paradox/
So the point above is that the total moisture is increasing in most places but to get moisture to come out as rain, you often need to SATURATE the air mass. At 1 deg. C warmer the air can hold 7% MORE moisture but if it only has 4% more moisture in it, then it's 3% LESS saturated. This can actually reduce marginal rain events but increase rain amounts of SATURATED air masses. If there's something we know with certainty, a warmer atmosphere, all things being equal will INCREASE rain amounts in many of the saturated air rain events, which are the extreme/heaviest ones.
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The SIZE of the wildfires are what make it so dangerous in Alaska, similar to the dynamic/same reason as Canada.
Published 4:30 am Wednesday, July 22, 2026
https://www.juneauempire.com/2026/07/22/alaska-named-most-dangerous-state-for-wildfires/
New analysis has revealed that Alaska is the most dangerous state in the country for wildfires, burning over 2,200 acres for every fire it records — the highest figure in the nation by a wide margin.
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https://alaskabeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Alaska-Fire-History-Chart.pdf
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https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northwest/topic/climate-change-and-wildfire-alaska
Compared to the average for 2012-25, the August 1st burnt acreage YTD is near that avg in N America but is well below that avg in S America due to wetter than normal conditions there from what I was saw posted elsewhere.
But there's a huge other side to this, especially considering that technology can manage forests and fight fires much better than 100 years ago.
This is from the state of Oregon where some of the worst fires are raging right now.
Note what happened in the 1930's during the Dust Bowl years in the Plains/Midwest when the drought extended across much of the country for much of the time.......all the way to the West Coast:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/17/fire/
I won't copy all of this because the current thread is spreading like a wildfire in length.
By metmike - June 29, 2026, 10:22 a.m.
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By metmike - June 29, 2026, 10:44 a.m.
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By metmike - June 29, 2026, 10:46 a.m.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wildfires
By metmike - June 29, 2026, 10:51 a.m.
Great comment, Larry!
That makes sense if you look at the data from both hemispheres, this adds up to the graphing below.
However, the media and information gatekeepers, without fail every single year, report only on places where the worst wildfires are and you can bet your bottom dollar that EVERY year on this HUGE planet there will always be places having record wildfires for THAT PLACE.
In 2026 that includes Western Europe, Canada and now the Pacific Northwest.
It's good to report this and its a major crisis for those areas and many places are trending upwards because of climate change which is based on authentic science.
However, cherry picking the bad places constantly, regardless of whether justified or not WITHOUT telling us the other side(massive benefits from increasing CO2 on our greening planet or what % of the planet is really burning up) or the big picture is DIShonest, biased science.
Cumulative area burnt by wildfires by week
Thanks, Mike! I, like you, don’t want to minimize how terrible these fires are wherever they occur and also realize CC’s contribution to these. However, like you, I don’t think it’s a good idea to hide current data that isn’t supportive of increased fires. They’re going to vary from year to year, regardless!
It just so happens though that the two lowest years of year to date burnt world acreage since 2012 as of week 30 (~July 29th) are none other than 2026 (lowest with 112 million ha) and 2025 (2nd lowest with 131). The remainder are way up at 162-216. The avg of 2012-25 is 193. Thus, 2026 is a whopping 81 million ha below the 2012-25 week 30 world avg!
I’m guessing it’s probably largely a random thing caused largely by more favorable wx (wetter, fewer lightning strikes on dry areas, lower temps, lighter winds), fewer arsonists, and/or better firefighting, but I’ll again say this shouldn’t be hidden since that would make one be suspected of info bias:
Excellent data, Larry.
Especially showing the side of this that very few people see/know about!
In my searching around today, I stumbled on this site with historical statistics on the worst fires in US history.
It shows that 5 out of the top worst 6 fires(by acres burned) occurred before 1960 and BEFORE climate change/global warming.
HOWEVER, 17 out of the 33 worst fires on this list (just over half) occurred since 2000.
There is a host of things that are different in 2026 compared to 100+ years ago related to what causes wildfires (humans) and how we fight them.
Your graphs show that over 50% of world totals are African grass & savannah, and their decline drives the totals.
There are 3 basic regimes: tropical, temperate, & taiga.
That media focus on temperate is not a surprise. US outlets mostly follow US fires, and Canadian or Russian only when the sky turns yellow & the air foul. Reporting staffs are shrinking, and more concentrated in NYC & DC.
European media follow Euro fires, scary things in heavily populated areas.
Africa is a big messy place where reporters can get killed and a lot of fires are part of agriculture.
Amazon basin fires are fairly important. In the Bolsonaro years, when the rainforest was under full assault, it was deadly. I'd love to see more now, about whether that is continuing.
Oh, and the Salt Lake Tribune put out a handy guide to not getting burned to a crisp & your house destroyed - https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/08/12/how-plan-protect-your-home-before/
That's a wonderful point, Patrick!
If you look at my posts from years ago on this topic, you would see that most of them were DOWNplaying the increase in recent wildfires in the West.
I've evolved after looking for reasons for why I was wrong by SINCERELY applying the scientific method.
There is still too WAY too much cherry picking of only the worst places for every extreme of weather and wildfires by the media and information gatekeepers without giving an honest perspective that represents the entire picture.
I was chief meteorologist at WEHT-TV in Evansville, IN from 1982-93. I understand ratings and today, clicks or views and what they mean. Too many key sources that care more about that or biased with tunnel vision activism(I'm a practicing environmentalist) then that care about authentic honest science and accurate facts that depict the big picture.
In fact, we cant even trust the messages of scientists today, very sadly.
Here's a study from a media site that I ran across earlier this evening. Is the scale of the increase actually this enormous??? 3 times the acres burned in the last 2 decades???
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I found the actual data here:
https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/wildfires
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Just doing some quick math in my head, it shows the average was just less than a 2 fold increase during the times they claim to be of a greater magnitude increase. That's a huge increase of course but why is their math and source of the same data so much greater?
That's the same place that I use for year to date & active.
https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn
Bad time in Oregon. 5 active fires that have burned over 100,000 acres each. (Hay Creek is about done)
Great site, patrick!
I just noticed another profound element to the worst wildfires in history stats.
17 out of 33 of them happened in Alaska!!!
Global wildfire data+more(West)
By metmike - Aug. 3, 2026, 8:09 p.m.
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Alaska is a huge state of course but this makes total sense based on our previous analysis:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Global wildfire data+West/Alaska
By metmike - Aug. 2, 2026, 5:04 p.m.
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Here's a huge surprise to me. The wildfires are NOT always correlated with % coverage of forest in that state:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1gc0tn2/forest_cover_percentage_by_state_in_the_united/
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Northern parts of Alaska are north of the treeline:
Great maps! Nothing better than maps! Makes it undeniable and profound.
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/more-frequent-fire-weather
This is just 1 location below:
This tells us that most of these fires were preventable!!!!
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https://www.frontlinewildfire.com/wildfire-news-and-resources/what-causes-wildfires/
Humans OUTSIDE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, are responsible for the vast majority of wildfires.
This guy reportedly set at least 25 fires in the past year
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/06/spokane-wildfire-suspect-aaron-farinacci-court-arraignment/
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Needs to spend the rest of his life in prison since WA doesn't have the death penalty. The amount of harm caused by just this 1 fire is hard to fathom!
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state
British Columbia is in the lead for worst
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/livestory/bc-wildfires-aug-8-summerland-evacuation-9.7300648
Thanks, patrick!
Regarding worldwide year to date acres burnt worldwide through week 31, 2026 and then 2025 remain the two lowest of 2012-2026 fwiw. This likely won’t change at least for a few weeks.
With African agriculture fires being so important, this interview with a Nigerian bat researcher whose bat territory was being burned so she went into 10 years of working with the villagers is quite good -
https://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=26-P13-00034&segmentID=4
TANSHI: It was a rollercoaster that we experienced. One day we were celebrating the bat that we discovered. Eight days later, we were running for our lives from a wildfire that destroyed 50% of the bat's habitat.
DOERING: Oh, my.
TANSHI: So in terms of urgency, it was an instant moment, just realization that this is it. We gotta do something, you know? Okay, to be honest, when we ran from the forest fire, during that time of running from the forest fire with all of our bags and all of our gear and expensive equipment, my most important concern was to make sure everybody got to the village safe, because we were running down the mountain. It's not safe to be running down the mountain. But then as soon as we got back, when we looked back and took a photo of what the scene looked like, it was a huge conflagration. And in that moment, we knew, we've got to do something, but we thought it was going to be a small fire, you know, a couple of days. No, it burned for three weeks. Three weeks, you look on the map, and you're looking at 50% of the forest gone to fires.
DOERING: Gosh.
TANSHI: So it was an instant situation of just realizing that this is an urgent thing. It wasn't, it didn't take time, you know, we were like, we've got to act now, you know? So we started talking to community members. Initially, there was this sort of aah, no one's going to listen to you. But guess what? These guys, they also want to put out wildfires because it affects their farms too. There were people who were getting thrown into poverty because their whole farm has been burned, their whole family, their whole livelihood is gone. And so that urgency was that exact night when it happened, because we just discovered the species, and we were running for our lives and realizing this huge conflagration was just happening. If we didn't stop it, we won't be able to really speak confidently about any effort to save the species. And that will be a real shame to humanity, losing the species.
& more, of course, involving weather stations, town criers, & a variety of headgear
Go Iroro!
We have several bats that "hang out" on our property.
We have a breezeway between our house and garage. We keep the trashcans under that.
Years ago, I noticed dozens of small turds on top of 1 of the trash cans that looked exactly like mouse turds.
I thought, "why would a mouse hang out in that same spot for long enough to poop that many times???"
I looked up and exactly above the turds was a bat hanging from the underside of the roof!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano
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Don't get me wrong, I think bats are awesome but we are in the epicenter of the greens above.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/nongame-and-endangered-wildlife/bats-of-indiana/
Indiana is home to 12 species of bats and each is uniquely fascinating. Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight, and they use echolocation to navigate through their environment and capture prey. All bats found in Indiana are insectivores, meaning they eat insects. This pest control service provided by bats helps to keep habitats and ecosystems healthy – in fact, bats improve the quality of forests, cities, and farms. It is estimated that the agricultural industry in North America saves $3.7 billion per year because of how many insects bats eat.
Bats of Indiana are in trouble, and they need your help. By learning to live with bats you can help with their long-term conservation and recovery. Please explore the features below to learn more about the bats that can be found in the Hoosier State, how to safely live with them, and what you can do to help.
Have you seen a bat or bats roosting in a bat house, a barn, or perhaps emerging from a tree at dusk? Just a few minutes of your time reporting this observation can help bats in Indiana!
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More on bats:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat
Bats (orderChiroptera/kaɪˈrɒptərə/) are winged mammals, the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, using long, spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium. The smallest bat, and one of the smallest extant mammals, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is 29–33 mm (1.1–1.3 in) in length, 150 mm (5.9 in) across the forearm and 2 g (0.071 oz) in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes, with the giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus) reaching a weight of 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) and having a wingspan of 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in).
The second-largest order of mammals after rodents, bats account for about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with at least 1,500 known species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats and the microbats. But more recent evidence has supported dividing the order into Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, with megabats as members of the former along with several species of microbats. Many bats are insectivores, and most of the rest are frugivores (fruit-eaters) or nectarivores (nectar-eaters). A few species feed on animals other than insects; for example, the vampire bats are haematophagous (feed on blood). Most bats are nocturnal, and many roost in caves or other refuges; it is uncertain whether bats have these behaviours to escape predators. Bats are distributed globally in almost all regions. They are important in their ecosystems for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds as well as controlling insect populations.
Bats provide humans with some direct benefits, at the cost of some disadvantages. Bat dung has been mined as guano from caves and used as fertiliser. Bats consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides and other insect management measures. Bats are sometimes numerous enough and close enough to human settlements to serve as tourist attractions, and they are used as food in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Due to their physiology, bats are one type of animal that acts as a natural reservoir of many pathogens, such as rabies, and since they are highly mobile, social, and long-lived, they can readily spread disease among themselves. If humans interact with bats, these traits become potentially dangerous to humans.
Depending on the culture, bats may be symbolically associated with positive traits, such as protection from certain diseases or risks, rebirth, or long life, but in the West, bats are popularly associated with darkness, malevolence, witchcraft, and vampires.
Mark Trail is doing bats. George Atkins follows carefully.
https://thytrailbedone.com/
Yet another weird one - European wildfires are setting off old, buried, shells from WWII & others
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/europes-wildfires-are-igniting-forgotten-wwii-and-cold-war-bombs/
Thanks, patrick.
That one appears to be paywalled for me but for sure its fascinating.
You can get most of the shell story at https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/08/fun-times-with-european-wildfires . The link from there may be a gift one.
Just like for the weeks before, 2026 year to date worldwide burnt acreage as of week 33 remains the lowest of 2012-26 by a good margin with 2025 2nd lowest. These shouldn’t change for a good number of weeks and quite possibly to the end of the year.
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/warmer-thirstier-air-worsens-drought
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I have a major credibility problem with this particular, very biased source that cherry picks, including their abuse on the graph with the word MORE EXTREME Moisture to mislead us because much of it has HELPED protect us from widespread droughts the past 35 years in the 1# crop producing area on the planet(US Cornbelt). Not stopped droughts but the last 3+ decades have featured the LEAST number of widespread droughts in the Cornbelt in recorded history.
Why nothing about that here????
However, the data here is rock solid as are the main points in the WESTERN US!
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https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/water-in-the-west
Indonesia is having major fires. It may be connected to El Nino.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyqw44w142o
"Peatlands are incredibly effective carbon stores because their waterlogged conditions slow decomposition, allowing carbon to accumulate underground for thousands of years," explains Dr Nisa Novita, a peatland researcher at Indonesian conservation NGO Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara.
"But this also means they can become a 'carbon bomb' when they are drained or burned, because that carbon can be rapidly released into the atmosphere."
Others have warned that as the current Super El Niño continues to escalate over the coming months, the fires could significantly worsen.
Last year, without El Niño, forest fires in Indonesia torched a 359,000-hectare area, says Professor Bambang Hero Saharjo, a forest fire forensics expert from Institut Pertanian Bogor University.
Citing research reports, Prof Bambang told the BBC that this year's El Niño could burn an area as large as 11 million hectares – putting it on par with one of Indonesia's worst wildfire seasons, which happened from 1997 to 1998.
Thanks, patrick.
Yes, for sure the El Nino could make this much worse.
Here is some comprehensive data on Indonesia fire seasons. Last year was low and in fact the last decade looked below average much of the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%932016_El_Ni%C3%B1o_event
Sea surface anomalies across the world in November 2015 during the 2014–2016 El Niño event.
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