If you lose a fall storm, as happened in 2019, that leaves California fire-prone in October and November, when often-fierce winds blow from the mountains toward the ocean. plans reimagine fighting wildfires amid virus risks “Our fire season is not over yet and we have the fall to worry about.” “It’s a super strong effect in the summertime and we’re right smack in the middle of summertime,” Balch said Monday. That means long hot and dry summers with a handful of winter storms bringing rain and snow.īut as the climate warms, snow melts earlier making for drier plants in the summer and the rains come later, extending fire season. In California, a Mediterranean climate sets up ideal conditions for fire then is worsened by climate change, said University of California, Merced, fire scientist LeRoy Westerling, who has had his home threatened twice in the last few years. “Fuel moisture is being influenced by climate change.” “Fuel moisture drives the fire business,” said University of Alberta fire scientist Mike Flannigan. Area burned by wildfire in California increased more than fivefold since 1972, from a five-year average of 236 square miles (611 square kilometers) a year to 1,394 square miles (3,610 square kilometers) a year according to a 2019 study by Williams, Balch and others.ĭozens of studies in recent years have linked bigger wildfires in America to global warming, especially because it dries plants and makes them more flammable. Park Williams: “Big fires are kind of inevitable in California.”Īnd it’s getting worse, fast. Trying to manage California’s wildfires is like trying to hold back a tidal wave, said Columbia University fire scientist A. “People are living in flammable places, providing ignition, starting the wildfires against a backdrop of a warming climate that is making wildfires worse.” “California has a really flammable ecosystem,” said University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch. Those factors in combination with frequent drought punctuated by spurts of downpours, a century of fire suppression, people moving closer to the wild, as well as homes that burn easily, people starting fires accidentally or on purpose and, most of all, climate change, create a system for wildfires. California burns regularly because of fire-happy native shrubs and trees, fierce autumn winds, and invasive grasses that act as kindling.
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