Copernicus report: Wildfires drop in Southeast Asia, but surges in UK and South Korea
The first months of 2025 saw lower global wildfire emissions compared to the long-term average, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The data, covering the period from January to April, revealed a sharp drop in fire activity across Southeast Asia, while unusual fires occurred in South Korea and parts of Northern and Western Europe.
Southeast Asian countries — including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam — recorded one of the lowest levels of seasonal fire emissions since 2003. CAMS estimates total carbon emissions from the region at 37 megatonnes, less than half the 2003–2024 average of 79 megatonnes for the same period. Despite this decline, some intense fires in March and April caused significant smoke and air quality issues.
CAMS attributes the reduction partly to efforts in curbing slash-and-burn agriculture, a common source of wildfires. However, the fires that did occur still had “serious public health concerns” due to smoke spreading across borders and mixing with pollution from local sources.
“Wildfires and biomass burning have significant impacts on air quality and human health,” said Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist at CAMS. “The 23 years of the CAMS fire emissions dataset allow us to quickly evaluate current wildfires around the world and provide context for how fire emissions are changing for different regions.”
In contrast, South Korea experienced a record-breaking spike in fire activity. In late March, wildfires in the country’s southern regions led to 0.8 megatonnes of carbon emissions, four times higher than the usual annual average of 0.2 megatonnes. CAMS notes that “dry, hot, and windy conditions helped spread the flames at unprecedented rates.”
Meanwhile, unseasonal wildfires affected the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, driven by unusually dry weather. CAMS has also begun tracking early fire activity in eastern Eurasia and the Arctic, as well as Canada, warning that the boreal summer may bring more widespread fires.
Earlier, it was reported that the Japan Meteorological Agency is considering the use of artificial intelligence in weather forecasting to improve accuracy through deep learning.