2025 wildfires cause record damages even as global burned area remains unusually low

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

In 2025, global wildfire area burned was lower than normal, but increasingly intense fires in more exposed places made it one of the deadliest and costliest wildfire years on record.

Global wildfires are increasing in intensity and frequency, but there’s been a shift in where they occur and in their cost, new research has found. Image: Adobe.

In 2025, the world experienced one of the deadliest and most expensive wildfire seasons yet saw a decrease in land burned.

New analysis, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), has revealed a shift in wildfire risk: it’s no longer about how much burns, but where, how intensely, and who is exposed.

A quiet fire year

In 2025, wildfires burned 335 million hectares globally, 16% below the long-term average. Fire-related carbon emissions also fell to 11 billion tonnes of CO₂, the third lowest since 2002.

Catastrophic fires across the US, Canada, Europe and South Korea displaced over 300,000 people and caused 90 fatalities, highlighting the increasing toll wildfires is having on society.

2025 became the costliest wildfire year ever recorded, with fires accounting