A resident sprays water on hot spots near a house during a wildfire in Celista, British Columbia, last August.
Photographer: Cole Burston/BloombergFires From 2023 Smoldering Under Snow Reveal Canada's Dangerous New Reality
After last year’s record-breaking Canadian wildfire season, dozens of smaller blazes kept burning through a warm, dry winter. Governments and companies are bracing for another smoke-filled summer in 2024.
As skiers glide down the slopes of British Columbia’s Whistler Mountain and ice fishers drop their lines into frozen lakes in Alberta, dozens of the fires whose smoke darkened North America’s skies last year are still burning — with some smoldering beneath layers of snow.
These so-called “zombie fires” are a sign of a grim new normal that’s wreaking havoc even in far northern countries like Canada: a fire season that almost never ends.