Alaska Saw More Wildfires In The Last Century Than In The Previous 3,000 Years

Photo: 2021 USFWS Fire Employee Photo Contest Category: Landscape and Fire. A wildfire burns on Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska – August 14, 2003. Photo credit: National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr. Public Domain. Article by Rosie McCall. IFLScience – December 24, 2025. Research article: Biogeosciences.

Alaska is perhaps better known for snow and ice than it is fire. But new research shows the Last Frontier has been hit by more wildfires over the last century than at any other time since the rule of Ramses the Great. The study’s authors put this down to the impact of global warming, which is causing soil dry out and woody plants to proliferate, providing the perfect conditions for wildfires to flourish. This suggests the recent spurt of wildfires are not an anomaly but a sign of things to come. […] 

Click here to view original web page at www.iflscience.com