## 4 Results
### Wildfire Temporal Dynamics  
Since the late 1990s, the total burned area and mean burned area have been strongly increasing within the larch range. In the second decade (2012-2022 vs. 2001-2011), the mean burned area increased by about 2.0 times (\(p<0.05\)). The number of fires was also increasing in this period, albeit less strongly (Figure 5a). At the same time, the number of extreme fire events which caused a burned area of \(>\)10,000 ha also strongly increased (Figure 5b). The number of extreme fires and the burned area increased by factors of 2.7 and 3.6, respectively, in the second decade (2012-2022 vs. 2001-2011; \(p<0.01\)). The maximum registered burned area reached \(-\)900,000 ha. The proportions of extreme fire events and the relevant burned area show increasing trends. Although the maximum proportion of extreme fire events was less than 5%, they were responsible for more than 80% of the annual burned area (Figure 5c).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Study Area \({}^{*}\)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Environmental**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Burned Area**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Fire Frequency**} \\ \cline{3-6}  & & **Adjusted \(R^{2}\)** & \(p\)**-Value** & **Adjusted \(R^{2}\)** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{Larch range \({}^{**}\)} & Air temperature & 0.36 & 0.0016 & 0.22 & 0.026 \\  & Precipitation & 0.32 & 0.041 & 0.21 & 0.038 \\  & Soil moisture & 0.55 & 0.0003 & 0.21 & 0.047 \\  & SPEI & 0.26 & 0.012 & 0.17 & 0.058 \\  & TW & 0.28 & 0.034 & 0.22 & 0.065 \\  & Air temperature & 0.36 & 0.0019 & 0.25 & 0.047 \\  & Precipitation & 0.38 & 0.02 & 0.46 & 0.041 \\  & Soil moisture & 0.62 & 0.0008 & 0.36 & 0.015 \\  & SPEI & 0.56 & 0.0008 & 0.29 & 0.037 \\  & TW & - & - & - & - \\  & Air temperature & 0.48 & 0.0019 & 0.63 & 0.0001 \\  & Precipitation & 0.31 & 0.005 & 0.38 & 0.0001 \\ South1 \({}^{***}\) & Soil moisture & 0.49 & 0.0001 & 0.67 & 0.000001 \\  & SPEI & 0.23 & 0.017 & 0.36 & 0.002 \\  & TW & 0.24 & 0.06 & 0.31 & 0.03 \\  & Air temperature & 0.12 & 0.087 & 0.13 & 0.075 \\  & Precipitation & 0.14 & 0.089 & 0.20 & 0.036 \\ South2 \({}^{***}\) & Soil moisture & 0.48 & 0.0001 & 0.46 & 0.0002 \\  & SPEI & 0.38 & 0.0011 & 0.42 & 0.0005 \\  & TW & 0.32 & 0.022 & 0.28 & 0.035 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{*}\)Study areas: Larch range on Figure 1; North—area 1 in Figure 1; South1 and South2—area 2 and 3 in Figure 1, respectively. \({}^{**}\) JJA period is for the northern study site. \({}^{***}\) MJJAS period is for the southern study sites.  
\end{table}
Table 1: Dependence of the annual burned area and the number of fires on the environmental variables.  
Figure 4: (**a**) Total burned area and number of fires reach their maximum values within the southern and northern parts of the larch range. (**b**) Relative burned area and number of fires. Values are normalized by the area of the larch forests within each latitudinal range. Study period is 1996–2022.  
Figure 5: **(a)** Total burned area, mean burned area, and the number of fires are increasing within the larch range. **(b)** Number of extreme fire events (fires with area burned >10,000 ha) and their area are increasing. **(c)** Proportion (in percent) of extreme fires and the corresponding burned area are increasing. Trends (without outliers in 2003 and 2022) are significant at \(p<0.01\).