Our ensemble fire weather
season length metric captured important
wildfire events throughout Eurasia such as the Indonesian fires of 1997 — 98 where peat fires, following an El Niño - induced drought, released carbon equivalent to 13 — 40 % of the global fossil fuel emissions from only 1.4 % of the global vegetated land area (Fig. 4, 1997 — 1998) 46 and the heatwave over Western
Russia in 2010 (Fig. 4, 2010) that led to its worst fire
season in recorded history and triggered extreme air pollution in Moscow51.
The 2017
wildfire season has seen unusually high fire levels in many parts of the world, with extensive and severe fires occurring in Chile, the Mediterranean,
Russia, the US, Canada and even Greenland.