It’s the middle of February, and the Southern Plains is already deep into fire season. Active wildfires are burning across the Texas Panhandle, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and western Kansas simultaneously, driven by the conditions that define winter fire weather in this region: freeze-cured grass, single-digit humidity, and sustained high winds.

In Canada, the fires have forced more than 25,000 people to evacuate from three provinces. The fires also put over 344,000 barrels of oil sands production at risk - about 7% of Canada's total oil output. Canadian wildfire smoke has moved south into the United States. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) predicts that wildfire risks will stay high in the western United States through September. The outlook looks especially concerning for Idaho and Washington, where officials are getting ready for what could be a dangerous fire season.