Climate conditions may increase wildfire risks in in Alaska by the end of the century.

Warmer spring temperatures, earlier snowmelt, wetland drying, and longer growing seasons have already contributed to an increase in wildfires in interior Alaska. There have recently been unprecendented tundra fires in northern and western Alaska associated with sea ice loss. Even if climate warming were curtailed by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the annual area burned in Alaska is projected to double by mid-century and to triple by the end of the century. More extensive and severe wildfires could shift the forests of Interior Alaska during this century from dominance by spruce to broadleaf trees for the first time in the past 4,000 to 6,000 years.