FIRE DANGER

WHY THE RISK OF WILDFIRES KEEPS GROWING

- by Alice Andre-Clark

In 2024, more than 8,000 wildfires tore through California. They burned an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. In 2024, wildfires across the United States burned about 2.4 times more land than they did 41 years earlier, when records were first kept. What’s making so many places go up in smoke?

A WARMING PLANET

Climate change plays a big part in the increase in wildfires. The Earth is getting warmer. Human activity such as burning oil and gas creates greenhouse gases. Like a blanket, these gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. The average global temperature is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (more than one degree Celsius) higher now than in 1880. This warming trend has a big effect on what experts call the fire triangle.

Fires need three things to grow: fuel, heat, and oxygen. Rising temperatures create more fuel for fires. Hot weather dries out plants and trees. Those materials can go up in flames in an instant.

Climate change contributes to wildfires in other ways, too. Fires tend to happen in the warm months. So, climate change makes the fire season longer. In California, climate change seems to have increased the force of strong winds that spread fires. Higher temperatures have also attracted invasive species that give forest fires a helping hand. Dry cheatgrass, for example, is invasive in California and catches fire easily. Invasive bark beetles kill trees. More dead trees mean more fuel.