Unlike hurricane seasons or monsoons, there is no single prescribed date for the start of the North American wildfire season. Historically, Canada and the United States have shared wildland firefighting resources including personnel, vehicles, helicopters and airplanes. Both countries have developed their wildfire response plans around having access to resources from their neighbor. However, this year demonstrated the weakness in those plans as both countries were unable to share resources as they fought multiple wildfires within their respective borders simultaneously.
Heeding warnings of a predicted increased fire season, officials encouraged communities and people across the continent to prepare for a challenging summer ahead, and in many places that came to fruition. Colorado, multiple jurisdictions across California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington State and Western Canada (including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia) issued warnings about potentially catastrophic fire conditions that may exceed last year’s horrific wildfire season. Much of the risk came from major drought across the continent including Western Canada, most of the Western U.S. from the Pacific through the Midwest and almost all of Mexico.