Meteorologist approved. After the last few years wildfires have skyrocketed to top of the list of things I want no part of. Fire Weather just reinforces this newfound fear. Books dealing with weather are hit or miss and often times the reader has to wade through the meteorological weeds which can be intimidating . Vaillant includes a lot of information in the book and could have been made into multiple publications. Don't let that turn you off. Fire Weather is easily digestible and reads more like fiction than your normal science tale. Fire Weather has my highest recommendation! .

My sincere thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Fire Weather.

A well-researched account of the massive Fort McMurray fire of 2016 and the events that led up to the fire along with the actions of those trying to fight the fire and the people who had to evacuate. Another part of the book focuses on climate change and the stark impacts of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, in addition to the effects human activity have on wildfires. The final part of the book is a call to action, for people to commit to making changes in order to reduce humanity's impact on the environment. Overall, a harrowing account of the lives affected by the wildfire, as well as an insightful look into the history of climatologists and how their research and predictions have been received over time and how this ties into the current outlook.

My thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, etc and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. This was a very intense book with a lot of information and ideas to comprehend. The layout of the book could have done more to make this book a 5-Star book. The climate change could have been treated as a separate entire book in and of itself. The background behind bitumen and the history of Fort McMurray as well as the Fire could have been handled as a book iby itself as well. The contents and message conveyed are indeed a very important message to humankind. It was good and well researched and written but the organization detracted from it

This book is for anyone who wants to understand how climate change is impacting our planet, and specifically how it's creating conditions that are perfect for catastrophic wildfires. The story of the Fort McMurray Fire is tragic, and should be a cautionary tale of the dangers of global warming. With Canadian wildfires raging again (along with many others across the world) it's clear we need to make some drastic changes if we are to stop future climate/weather related disasters.

A harrowing account of a massive fire that collided with a city in Canada. It grips you and keeps you hooked as you read page by page of the fight between man and fire. At times you could feel the desperation of trying to contain this fire. It also makes you think about what we, humans can do to combat a changing climate. I highly recommend this book.

I am a John Vaillant fan and reader from The Golden Spruce and The Tiger. His books keep getting better and better. If you are only going to read one book about climate change (but you should read more) and its impact on our fire-prone lands, this is your have-to-read book. While I am reading this, fire once again threatens forest lands in Alberta. It’s almost as if I am on the ground in Fort McMurray with all those impacted: homeowners, workers, firefighters, city council members, reporters, and all who are trying to understand this terrible phenomenon and make us safe.

Vaillant explains the history of how we got to this point. He explains the science and relationship between the land, the weather, and our “stewardship”. But he also always focuses on the cost to humans and the environment. Individual acts of heroism and tenacity keep the human story central. Solutions are not easy, nor frequently embraced. But Vaillant wants us to be aware of the options -to do something or nothing. The time is now. Highly, highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

Thank you to NetGalley and the amazing publisher for the ARC of this title! I am so grateful to be auto-approved for this title!
I look forward to reading and reviewing. More to come!

What a treat: one of my favorite authors (I loved both "The Tiger" and "The Golden Spruce") writing about one of my favorite subjects, wildfires. And as always, he does it masterfully.

I remember Fort McMurray from 2016 as it was widely covered in the media, but only after reading this book did I understand the magnitude of the event. Vaillant reconstructs in fascinating detail what happened in Alberta at that time, and it is a gripping story - the only other book on wildfires that did a similar job was "Paradise" by Lizzie Johnson.

While this vivid description fulfilled my expectations, the author offers much more here. He combines his reporting with the story of another disaster, much slower in coming but no less horrific: how man's appetite for fossil fuels has created the eponymous fire weather on a global scale. While not as fast-paced, I found this part of the book absorbing, even enlightening. I had no idea how long scientists and Big Oil have been fully aware of the damage they are doing to all of us.

Many thanks to the publisher, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor,, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.
John Valliant’s book details the Fort McMurray Fire of 2016. Fort McMurray is part of the Oil Sands; therefore, part of petroleum industry. The fire destroyed much of the town but surprisingly no one died.
While the book is in part a riveting chronicle of the fire and the attempt to fight the fire. In these parts of the books, Valliant details not only the battle to escape from and fight the fire, but also the changes in techniques as well as the changes in the fire itself. Some of the passages in these sections are beautiful. When Valliant writes about fire and its connection to say a light switch, he actually makes you look at it with a sense of wonder. It is this writing both about the history of fire and about the history of Fort McMurray in general that make the background chapters far more than simply background.
The book is also a look at what cause the far more destructive fires – in short the same issues that lead to the development of Fort McMurray -the reliance on oil and such products that contribute to climate change. More than that, he traces the responses of oil companies to the science, dating the responses further back than what is usually discussed. Even here, he makes the science and politics easy to understand, and while not as riveting as the sections dealing with fire, he makes them extremely readable. He even highlights how much oil production is tied to excess profits at some points (pointing at what price Saudi Arabia could sell oil and still break even, for instance).
The drawback to focus on the fire, while highlight the amount of destruction to the town, however, also mean that some things aren’t as fully detailed as a reader may want. Valliant does point out the overprice houses and the motor toys that many residents of Fort McMurray own, drawing at times to the idea of climate change. He also mentions the increase in cancer rates and health problems, as well as addiction and mental illness issues. Yet, at times one wanted a bit more. Additionally, while the impact on Indigenous populations is mentioned it is not fully detail with in depth – yet it is hard to see how this would be in the scope of the book.
Those two asides, it’s safe to say that Valliant hits it out of the park. His descriptive writing in this book is especially strong.

There's a scene in Fire Weather where a Fort McMurray woman drives past flames right on the highway in her town, and continues on to drop off her dry cleaning. The dry cleaner takes her order and confirms the date for pickup, while he calls his wife to tell her the flames are in their neighbourhood and that it's time to leave. The police chief had just wrapped up a press conference where despite overwhelming evidence of the disaster about to take place, he did not advice people to anything other than to be cautious. Keep calm and carry on. That scene is going to stick with me a long time, because I can't think of a better example of our relationship to the reality of climate change.

Fire Weather is an excellent book. Better than I had expected, and I had high expectations after reading his previous two non-fiction nature books. I plan on reading anything he writes from here on out. He writes in a very easy to read style and can create a narrative story even out of normal cycles in nature. The way he describes fire like it's a living being was a very interesting chapter.

The book is a mix of a few different things. There is the story of the wildfire in Fort McMurray and how it affected the town and the people in it. There is the story of fire itself, how humans interact with it and how our relationship with it has changed. Then there's the final third of the book which mostly deals with climate change and the role humans have played in it. This is probably the most important section of the book, and the section I hope the people of Fort McMurray and Alberta don't skip over. This book should be required reading for anyone involved in the production or consumption of petroleum products, which is to say basically everyone.

Fire Weather will likely be on a lot of best of lists to end 2023. It's an entertaining and alarming book and I can't recommend it enough. 5 stars.