Northern Michigan ice storm debris could mean dangerous fire season

Michigan’s wildfire season is off to a slow start, but officials are wary as debris from last year’s ice storm begins to dry out
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has ramped up its firefighting capacity in anticipation of a busy summer
Wildfire risk is rising in Michigan and globally as the climate warms

Michigan’s wildfire season is off to an unremarkable start, but timber debris from last year’s historic northern Michigan ice storm and the potential for wildfire smoke drifting in from Canada have raised concerns about the months ahead.

The average yearly number of wildfires in Michigan is 297. So far this year, 97 wildfires have burned 520 acres — below average for this time of year.

In March 2025, an ice storm coated northern Michigan in thick layers of ice, snapping and toppling tens of millions of trees and leaving massive amounts of dead timber across the region. Now, officials with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources told Bridge Michigan they are preparing for what could be a more active wildfire season because that debris has had a chance to dry out, turning it into kindling.

“Some places, the stuff can be up to eight or nine feet deep,” said DNR Fire Prevention Specialist Paul Rogers. “Normally, it’s pretty clear and we can get underneath them and through them with our bulldozers to get to a fire. Now, we can’t.”

To prepare, DNR officials have leased two Air Tractor AT-802s, planes modified to scoop 800 gallons of water from a lake in just 15 seconds and then dump it over an active blaze, slowing the spread while ground crews work their way in through the thick underbrush.

RELATED:

Legislators authorized one-time funding of $640,000 for the planes, which are leased through June from Henry’s Aerial service.

Local fire departments are also monitoring the weather and reminding residents to use caution when burning household debris, including keeping water nearby and avoiding burning on windy or dry days. Debris burns start the vast majority of Michigan wildfires.

Rising temperatures caused by climate change are increasing the risk of summer droughts across the Great Lakes region. That heightens fire risks, particularly in northern Michigan’s dense forests.

Faith Fredrickson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord, said current forecasts do not show any strong signals pointing toward either a particularly wet or dry summer in Michigan. That makes it difficult to predict how wildfire risks may evolve throughout the season.

“Right now, there’s not really any strong signals either way,” Fredrickson said.

In addition to the aircraft, the DNR said crews have been using heavy machinery to clear deadfall and create fuel breaks, which are strips of land where vegetation is reduced or changed to help slow wildfires and give firefighters safer areas to contain them, in hopes of preventing fires and slowing their spread once they ignite.

Michigan’s largest fire so far this season has been just 200 acres — tiny in comparison to the megafires that have become commonplace in Canada and the US West as climate change diminishes snowpack and parches forests.

Windy and dry conditions helped the Tomahawk Lake Fire spread quickly in northeast Michigan’s Presque Isle County, but state and local crews were able to contain it within hours, said Presque Isle Township Fire Chief Larry LaCross.

Wildfire smoke

A burned section of woods — The Tomahawk Lake Fire started to burn on Sunday, May 10, 2026. (Courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources)

Concerns about a severe wildfire season are not limited to the flames on the ground.

In recent years, Michigan has been repeatedly shrouded in smoke after it hitched a ride on the jetstream from recordbreaking Canadian and Western wildfires.

“When the wind direction is right and the conditions are right, that impacts our air quality right here,” said Aaron Ferguson, climate and tracking unit manager with the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services.

Ferguson said fires in Ontario and Quebec have been the primary source of ground-level air quality impacts in Michigan since 2023.

Last year, Michigan saw a spike in air pollution from fine particulate pollution, one of the main pollutants associated with wildfire smoke. The state issued air quality alerts for such pollution on 25 days.

Forecasts from the National Interagency Fire Center show an elevated risk of large wildfires across much of Canada and the western United States this summer, particularly in parts of the Northwest, northern California and the Great Basin.

Western North America saw recordbreaking warmth and paltry snowpack this past winter, leaving virtually the entire region in moderate to severe drought. Parts of Canada are also in drought.

When smoke from faraway fires reaches Michigan, it can create dangerous air quality, particularly for children, older adults, and people with underlying health conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, said Ferguson.

When that happens, health officials typically advise residents to limit outdoor activity and keep windows closed.

Thank you to our Michigan Environment Watch sponsors

Bridge Michigan Environment Watch is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors. Sponsorship supports our independent journalism mission but does not constitute sponsor endorsement of individual articles or editorial content. Bridge Michigan journalism remains fact- and data-driven and independent at all times.

Please visit the About page for more information and to subscribe to Environment Watch. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Emma Carr.