Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Forest fires and climate change

A society of Earth and Space Scientists, known as AGU, has been around for over 100 years. It publishes "Earth's Future", which, I have to assume, publishes serious science. In its latest issue it looks at the forest fires that have hit California from 1972 to 2018. Some conclusions they reached:

Annual burned area in California increased five‐fold during 1972–2018, mainly due to an eight‐fold increase in summer forest fires
Anthropogenic warming very likely increased summer forest fire by drying fuels. This trend is likely to continue 
Large fall fires are likely to become increasingly frequent with continued warming and possibly gradual declines in fall precipitation

The past decade has seen half of the state’s 10 largest wildfires and seven of its 10 most destructive fires, including last year’s Camp Fire, the state’s deadliest wildfire ever.

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