Climate change and wildfires

• Wildfire risk depends on:

  • prediction
  • temperature
  • soil moisture
  • presence of fuels
• Warmer temperatures and drier conditions can help fires spread and make them harder to put out
• Likely wildfires will start more often and burn more intensely.

  Research suggests large wildfires in the US will burn more than twice the area they did in 1970, average season 78 days longer
• Factors leading to an increase in dried fuel:

  • snow melts sooner which will lead to drier soils, forests and plants
  • increased droughts
  • unusual rain patterns
  • mountain pine beetle e.c.t. can weaken/kill trees, building up fuels in a forest