Wildfires Increase in Intensity and Frequency in the American West: Climate Change to Blame

As climate change causes temperatures to rise and widespread drought, wildfires are becoming more and more common. Now, scientists have announced that wildfires across the western United States have not only been getting more frequent, but have also been getting bigger over the last 30 years.

The researchers examined satellite data in order to measure areas burned by large fires since 1984. They then looked at climate variables, such as seasonal temperature and rainfall, during the same time period. In the end, they found that most areas that saw increased fire activity also saw increases in drought severity.

In fact, the number of wildfires over 1,000 acres in size in the region stretching from Nebraska to California increased by a rate of seven fires per year from 1984 to 2011. Needless to say, that's a massive jump in numbers. The total area that these fires burned also increased at a rate of nearly 90,000 acres per year, which is an area about the size of Las Vegas.

"We looked at the probability that increases of this magnitude could be random, and in each case it was less than one percent," said Philip Dennison, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In fact, the latest findings suggest that large-scale climate changes could be driving the increases in fire activity. In fact, the rise in number and the size of the fires are in line with long-term, global fire patterns that climate models have projected will occur as temperatures increase.

"Most of these trends show strong correlations with drought-related conditions which, to a large degree, agree with what we expect from climate change projections," said Max Moritz, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The largest rises in fire activity occurred across the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada and Arizona- New Mexico mountains; the southwest desert in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas; and the southern plains across western Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and eastern Colorado.

The findings reveal that as our climate changes, we may be experiencing larger and more widespread wildfires. This is particularly important to note for states that have to deal with these fires. Fire prevention strategies should be examined if wildfires are to increase.

The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Journal Letters.