STORY: Canada is on track to face its worst-ever year of wildfire destruction.

The country has been battling what experts believe is the most severe wildfire season on record there.

About 8.2 million acres of land had been already burned.

That’s about 13 times more than the average over the last decade.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday:

“This is a scary time for a lot of people, not just in Alberta, but right across the country, including in the Atlantic, North and Quebec, too.”

Officials also say that warm and dry conditions are forecast to persist through the end of the summer.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the risk of wildfires is set to increase in June and it remains unusually high throughout the summer.

“It shows us that this year’s already devastating season could well get worse.”

This year’s fires have destroyed homes, impacted oil and gas production and polluted the air even beyond the border into the United States.

Currently, there are more than 400 active wildfires in Canada, and more than half of them are deemed out of control.

Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders across the country.