Climate change influencing fire activity across US

For the first time in the month of January, Los Angeles experienced Critical Fire Weather conditions and 4 times in the past 3 months the National Weather Service in Los Angeles has issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation warning for parts of Southern California.

These warnings are only issued in the most extreme and dangerous conditions.

The weather prompting these warnings are hurricane-force Santa Ana Winds, humidity less than 10-15% and temperatures over 70 degrees.

Southern California is in a severe drought. Since last May, Los Angeles only received 16 hundredths of an inch of rain. Typically Los Angeles sees a bulk of its annual rainfall between October and April.

Santa Ana Winds originate from the western desert and push towards southern California. These winds are typical this time of year, but the dry vegetation isn’t. The strong wind gusts are also more widespread, impacting more areas this year.

Climate change is influencing fire activity across the United States. Warming global temperatures increase fire weather by drying out vegetation and lowering humidity. According to a Climate Central study over the past 50 years- wildfire seasons are lengthening and intensifying.

Southern California, Texas, and New Mexico have experienced some of the greatest increases in annual fire weather days. Some of these areas now see an extra two more months of fire weather days than we did half a century ago.