Climate Change Causes Intense Wildfires to Burn Longer and Further

First Posted: Jul 17, 2015 10:22 AM EDT

Climate change may be worsening wildfires. A new study reveals that as temperatures rise and as droughts sweep across North America, climate change is causing fire seasons to be longer and wildfires themselves to be more intense.

In order to see how climate change is impacting the incidence of wildfires, the scientists collected and analyzed earth's vegetated surface data from 1973 to 2013. What's interesting is that there aren't necessarily more wildfires. It's just that they're becoming worse. In fact, the global wildfire season has extended by as much as 20 percent in the past 35 years.

Wildfires aren't all bad. In fact, they play a key role in fire-adapted ecosystems. Fires can return nutrients to the soil and spur new growth. They can also prevent more severe fires later on by removing vegetation from the region.

In this case, though, it appears that climate change is causing these fires to spread further. Fire weather season has actually spread nearly 11.4 million square miles.

So what does this mean moving forward? Longer fire seasons mean extra global carbon emissions. The actual burning of plants creates emissions while at the same time removing a carbon dioxide-absorbing resource from the environment.

The findings bring light to another facet of climate change. As temperatures continue to warm and as weather patterns shift, we may be seeing longer fire season in the future.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.