![]() ![]() In Southern California, Santa Ana winds coming later in year With these hotter, drier conditions extending late into the year, wildfires have become larger, and they spread faster, cause more damage, and are more difficult to contain. of rain near #CampFire point of origin), explosive fire behavior & stunning tragedy in #Paradise would almost certainly not have occurred. If Northern California had received anywhere near the typical amount of autumn precipitation this year (around 4-5 in. As Swain noted in an informative Twitter thread about California’s November 2018 wildfires, April, May, September, October, and November will become increasingly dry, meaning that the state’s wildfire season will start earlier and end later. A 2018 paper published in Nature Climate Change, led by UCLA’s Daniel Swain, found that as a result of global warming, California’s rainy season will become increasingly concentrated in the winter months between December and February. ![]() Northern California has received only one inch of rain this season, which is about one-fifth of normal. On top of this direct drying effect, climate change is causing a shift in rain patterns. Essentially, global warming causes plants and soil to dry out as the atmosphere holds more water vapor. This pattern leads to an increase in evapotranspiration – the combination of evaporation and transpiration transferring more moisture from land and water surfaces and plants to the atmosphere. Global warming causes higher temperatures, and 2014 through 2018 have been California’s five hottest years on record. Read: Checklist: How to take advantage of brand-new clean energy tax credits The Golden State’s hotter, drier conditions Moreover, scientific evidence clearly shows that climate change is exacerbating California’s wildfires in different ways: Forest management does play some role in creating wildfire fuel, but some wildfires aren’t even located in forests. The reality is that about 57 percent of the state’s forests are owned and managed by the federal government, and another 40 percent by families, companies, and Native American tribes. ![]() President Trump’s tweets suggesting forest mismanagement is to blame for California’s wildfire woes, and threatening to withhold federal funding, have prompted widespread rebukes for their insensitivity as thousands of citizens flee the fires – some, tragically, unsuccessfully – and as an affront to thousands of weary firefighters. The data tell the story: Six of California’s ten most destructive wildfires on record have now struck in just the past three years. The Mendocino wildfire in July 2018 was California’s largest-ever by a whopping 60 percent.Įven though California’s wildfire season has traditionally ended in October, the Camp Fire raging in November 2018 is the state’s most destructive on record. 2017 was the state’s costliest and most destructive fire season on record. (Image credit: NASA)Ĭalifornia has been ravaged by record wildfires in recent years. Now designated as California’s deadliest fire, the still-raging Camp Fire by November 13 had led to 42 deaths, with many residents still unaccounted for and more than 7,000 structures destroyed.
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