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| Lightning is a major cause of wildfires throughout Canada, most commonly in the summer | Dark scene rotates to reveal burning trees in the middle of a forest. |
| When a lightning storm passes over areas of a forest in dry, warm, windy conditions, it can lead to many wildfires. | The scene continues to rotate until the burning trees disappear. |
| Sometimes, when lightning hits, the strike can enter the ground and ignite in the forest floor well below the surface. | We see a new forest being struck by lightning. A cross section of the ground reveals parts of the ground burning underneath the tree. |
| These fires can flare up immediately, but can also smoulder for days, even when it’s wetter out. | The underground fires continue to burn. |
| Later, when the sun is out, the wind can pick up, and the temperature rises, the smouldering ignitions can become fires and spread. | The scene zooms out and rotates around the tree. We see the sun rapidly rising and setting. The ground around the tree begins to glow orange. |
| In these conditions, fires may come out of the ground in some of the places the lightning has struck, often at the same time in several places. | The ground catches fire all around the tree. |
| Because of this phenomenon, a visible fire might actually be caused by lightning days before it’s noticed. | An overhead view shows the fire beginning to spread rapidly. |
| Follow Public Safety Canada for more safety-related info or learn more about forest fires in Canada on our website. |
Text on screen reads: For more information, visit: Canada.ca/wildfires and Natural-resources.canada.ca/wildland-fires |
| Canada wordmark is shown. |