The data from BC forest fires seems to be showing a trend to more extreme fire seasons than previously seen.
In 2003 we saw a change in the amount of forest burned in BC with the first very serious fire season in almost 20 years. If 2003 had been a one off it would just be the normal occasional extreme fire year but six of the last 13 years have been extreme fire years and two more of them were bad fire years. We have also see three instances of extreme fire yeas back to back. The last time this happened at all was in the 1930s.
Extreme fire seasons from 1920 to 2012 (200,000+ ha) 20 of which nine were during the steam train era and six in the last 13 years. In the 52 fire seasons from 1951 to 2002 there were only five extreme fire seasons