Fire outbreak record set in Canada in May 2023

The WEC Fire Monitoring System reports that in May 2023 Canada has recorded the highest number of fires in the last 12 years.
In the month of May 2023, an impressive number of 92,120 fires was recorded in that country, an increase of 444% compared to the expected average for the month, which is around 17,000 fires. The data comes from NASA’s NPP375 Satellite, which has data since 2012.
36,918 outbreaks were concentrated in Division No. 18, in the province of Saskatchewan, but other cities were also heavily hit as in Division No. 17 in the province of Alberta with 17,023 outbreaks. To get an idea of the magnitude of these fires, in the same period, all of South America, which is usually a continent with a lot of outbreaks of fires, recorded 45,981 outbreaks, Brazil registered 19,746 outbreaks, that is, 80% less than Canada.
In general, fires in Canada arise naturally, mainly from lightning. But this year, the human factor may have contributed, as was the case in the city of Banff in the province of Alberta, which at the beginning of this month of May registered a major fire after a prescribed burning went out of control, most likely due to firefighters not having been prepared or trained for sudden changes in weather conditions.
It is important to note that most of the smoke recorded in the northern states of the United States in that time frame came from these out-of-control fires in Canada.
See the graph showing the evolution of the number of fires in Canada over the last few years.