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Reply to: Increases in the world’s most extreme wildfire events probably driven by fire size and simultaneity

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 9, pages 1341–1344 (2025)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 09 June 2025

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replying to S. J. Schütze & V. Resco de Dios Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02742-3 (2025)

Intensifying fire weather and inappropriate land management are fuelling an increase in wildfires that threaten ecosystems, societies and the climate. We1 recently identified ‘energetically extreme’ fire events, defined by the daily sum of fire radiative power (ΣFRP) released by fires observed by the MODIS satellites. The central finding was that energetically extreme daily fire events (≥99.99th percentile; n = 2,913) more than doubled in frequency from 2003 to 2023, with the six most extreme years occurring within the last 7 years. This highlights a worsening dimension of fire behaviour, particularly in boreal forests and temperate conifer forests, with major implications for carbon storage2,3 and human exposure to wildfire disasters4,5. In their recent communication, Schütze and Resco de Dios6 question our findings using a fundamentally different way of characterizing fires using averages and single hotspots as opposed to indexing the energy released by broader fire events. Below we explain why their alternative analysis is inappropriate for tracking changes in globally energetically extreme wildfires.

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Fig. 1: Schütze and Resco de Dios’ definition of extreme wildfire events selects a preponderance of small fires that release small amounts of energy.
Fig. 2: Schütze and Resco de Dios’ definition of extreme fire events omits major parts of the world known to have experienced extreme, damaging fires.

Data availability

MODIS active fire records used in the analysis were downloaded from the University of Maryland ftp server (sftp://fuoco.geog.umd.edu) and are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25132151 (ref. 22). GFAS data used in the Supplementary Information were downloaded from https://ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/datasets/cams-global-fire-emissions-gfas?tab=download and are archived via figshare at https://figshare.com/s/51285c8d77e20331aa17 (ref. 23).

Code availability

Code for the Supplementary Information is available via figshare at https://figshare.com/s/51285c8d77e20331aa17 (ref. 23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fire Centre, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Calum X. Cunningham, Grant J. Williamson & David M. J. S. Bowman

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  1. Calum X. Cunningham
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  2. Grant J. Williamson
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  3. David M. J. S. Bowman
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C.X.C. performed the data analysis and wrote the first draft. All authors contributed to discussions of content and revisions.

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Correspondence to Calum X. Cunningham.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Nancy French and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary text, Fig. 1 and references.

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Cunningham, C.X., Williamson, G.J. & Bowman, D.M.J.S. Reply to: Increases in the world’s most extreme wildfire events probably driven by fire size and simultaneity. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 1341–1344 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02745-0

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