More than 150 million hectares — over twice the size of Texas — burned globally in the first months of 2026. With a high chance of a supercharged El Nino, the second half of the year could be even worse.
The world could see a "particularly severe year" of wildfires fueled by climate change and a potentially strong El Nino weather phenomenon after a record-breaking first few months of 2026, researchers warned Tuesday.
"This year the global fire season has got off to a very fast start," said Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather researcher at Imperial College London, who is part of World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of climate scientists.
Wildfires have scorched 50% more than the average for this time of year, and the current area burnt by wildfires globally is more than 20% higher than the previous record set since tracking began in 2012, he said.
Record-breaking burn areas have been observed in almost all countries in West Africa and the Sahel region.
