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Commentary

A Lens on Fire Risk Drivers: The Role of Climate and Vegetation Index Anomalies in the May 2025 Manitoba Wildfires

1
Department of Soils and Agri-Food Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V0A6, Canada
2
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur Private, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Earth 2025, 6(3), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/earth6030088 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 23 May 2025 / Revised: 17 July 2025 / Accepted: 28 July 2025 / Published: 1 August 2025

Abstract

In early May 2025, extreme wildfires swept across Manitoba, Canada, fueled by unseasonably warm temperatures, prolonged drought, and stressed vegetation. We explore how multi-source satellite indicators—such as anomalies in snow cover, precipitation, temperature, vegetation indices, and soil moisture in April–May—jointly signal landscape preconditioning for fire, highlighting the potential of these compound anomalies to inform fire risk awareness in boreal regions. Results indicate that rainfall deficits and diminished snowpack significantly reduced soil moisture, which subsequently decreased vegetative greenness and created a flammable environment prior to ignition. This concept captures how multiple moderate anomalies, when occurring simultaneously, can converge to create high-impact fire conditions that would not be flagged by individual thresholds alone. These findings underscore the importance of integrating climate and biosphere anomalies into wildfire risk monitoring to enhance preparedness in boreal regions under accelerating climate change.
Keywords: wildfire; remote sensing; Canada; drought; climate change; Manitoba wildfire; remote sensing; Canada; drought; climate change; Manitoba

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MDPI and ACS Style

Amiri, A.; Gumiere, S.; Bonakdari, H. A Lens on Fire Risk Drivers: The Role of Climate and Vegetation Index Anomalies in the May 2025 Manitoba Wildfires. Earth 2025, 6, 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth6030088

AMA Style

Amiri A, Gumiere S, Bonakdari H. A Lens on Fire Risk Drivers: The Role of Climate and Vegetation Index Anomalies in the May 2025 Manitoba Wildfires. Earth. 2025; 6(3):88. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth6030088

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amiri, Afshin, Silvio Gumiere, and Hossein Bonakdari. 2025. "A Lens on Fire Risk Drivers: The Role of Climate and Vegetation Index Anomalies in the May 2025 Manitoba Wildfires" Earth 6, no. 3: 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth6030088

APA Style

Amiri, A., Gumiere, S., & Bonakdari, H. (2025). A Lens on Fire Risk Drivers: The Role of Climate and Vegetation Index Anomalies in the May 2025 Manitoba Wildfires. Earth, 6(3), 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth6030088

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