Canada’s 2026 wildfire season has flipped from below-average to record pace in a matter of days. A federal update issued July 9 put the season’s activity below the five-year average, with 796 active fires nationally and 1.4 million hectares burned. Area burned that day stood at less than half the 10-year average, according to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report.
That changed fast. As of July 17-18, more than 900 active wildfires were burning from British Columbia to the Atlantic provinces, including new ignitions in Nova Scotia. The season total reached 3,656 fires, surpassing the 25-year average of 3,652, while area burned climbed to 2.78 million hectares, also above the 25-year benchmark. More than 300 new fires ignited in that 10-day stretch alone.
The smoke has again pushed air quality to dangerous levels across the US Midwest and Northeast. Alerts have been triggered from Boston to Minneapolis, and Milwaukee’s air quality index reportedly hit a reading of 644 this month, among the highest levels recorded in the country, as wildfire smoke blanketed the Great Lakes region. The Daily Planet previously reported on the smoke’s impact on the Twin Cities.
Canada was not alone in facing a severe fire season this month. In southern Spain, a wildfire that broke out July 9 near Los Gallardos in Almería province killed at least 12 people, with later reports putting the toll as high as 13 and roughly 10 more missing. Regional emergency chief Antonio Sanz called the deaths “an unprecedented tragedy.” The blaze, fueled by a prolonged heat wave, is considered the deadliest in Andalusian history and among the deadliest in Spain’s history. More than 1,600 residents were evacuated, and authorities have not confirmed a cause, though witnesses pointed to a downed power line, a claim the utility Endesa has denied.
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The Almería fire capped an already destructive season for Spain, which had burned nearly 50,000 hectares nationally as of early July, including 14 fires large enough to be classified as major forest fires, according to Euronews. Cantabria in northern Spain has suffered the worst damage so far this year.
There is still no single verified count of total wildfires burning worldwide at any given moment. Global tracking systems, including the Global Wildfire Information System used by Our World in Data, acknowledge their 2026 data remains incomplete. Canada and Spain represent two of the most severe and well-documented fire situations so far this year, but they are not the whole picture.
