Study Links Warming to Dramatic Increase of Large Wildfires in Western US
7 July 2006
Fires
Spring and summer moisture availability has declined in many forests in
the western United States (left). Most wildfires exceeding 1,000 ha in
burned area occurred in these regions of reduced moisture (right).
Graphs: Running. Data: Westerling et. al.
A new study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at
the University of California, San Diego, implicates rising seasonal
temperatures and the earlier arrival of spring conditions in connection
with a dramatic increase of large wildfires in the western United States.
In the most systematic analysis to date of recent changes in forest fire
activity, Anthony Westerling, Hugo Hidalgo and Dan Cayan of Scripps
Oceanography, along with Tom Swetnam of the University of Arizona,
compiled a database of recent large western wildfires since 1970 and
compared it with climate and land-surface data from the region.
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