Report: climate change will make wildfires worse
- Abstract
A rash of wildfires have burned across parts of the southwestern U.S. at an alarming frequency early in the 2016 fire season, and a new report suggests climate change is partly to blame.There are now more large fires burning across the region than at any time in the past 40 years, and the area being burned has increased as well, according to a report by Climate Central, a nonprofit organization of scientists.Since 2010, Utah has seen an average of more than 40,000 more acres burning each year than in the average year in the 1970s, and statewide there are an average of two more “large wildfires,” or fires measured at more than 1,000 acres, each year.The figures also correlate closely with weather patterns that have been trending hotter and drier over the past four decades, according to the report.
- Resource Type
- Magazine/newspaper article
- Author
- The Spectrum
- Resource URL
- http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2016/07/02/report-climate-change-make-wildfires-worse/86638414/
- Date
- 7/2/2016
- Organization Type
- News
- Health and Human Impacts
- Dislocation/displacement/migration Respiratory disease
- Climate and Environmental Impact
- Wildfires
- Solution
- Disaster preparedness
- Region
- Southwest
- Other
- Climate science