Wildfire Safety and Preparedness

Is Climate Change Making Wildfire Seasons Worse?

When the 2015 wildfire season ended and the firefighting costs were added up, the U.S. Forest Service said more than $1.7 billion was spent to suppress these blazes in a single year. While that number only accounts for federal funding, leaving out state and local costs for fighting the fires, it topped the previous record by at least $40 million.

Since the 1980s, the number of large wildfires has nearly doubled, according to information compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It's getting to the point where the national average is nearly one large wildfire per day all year long, which begs the question: is climate change to blame?

In some areas, scientists say global warming is certainly a factor. Take, for example, the West. On average, snow is melting earlier in the warm months while temperatures get hotter in the spring and summer, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES). In addition to the drying of soil and vegetation, which increases fire risk, climate change also makes it easier for certain insects to thrive, like the mountain pine beetle, which can destroy trees at a rapid pace and add literal fuel to the fire, C2ES also said.

(MORE: Grass Fires Claim Thousands of Acres in the Plains)

"Although our choices regarding land use and firefighting tactics can also play a role in lowering or raising risks, observed and anticipated changes in climate have and are expected to increase the area affected by wildfires in the United States," wrote the C2ES.

According to the National Wildlife Federation, snowpack in the West is melting as much as four weeks earlier than it did half a century ago, and within a month of that snow's disappearance, the forests are at an elevated risk for wildfires. Rising temperatures mean enhanced evaporation rates, the NWF also said, and combined with an expected decrease in precipitation by the middle of the century, there's not much hope for bringing wildfire seasons back to the manageable levels they once were.

Nowadays, "fire season" lasts seven months, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, up from five months in the 1970s. That increase is basically in lockstep with the rise in temperatures, and despite what's considered official for the length of the season, firefighters are chasing hotspots virtually all year.

“This is the future,” said California Gov. Jerry Brown during a press conference last September. “Climate change is not going to go away.”

Thunderstorms also play a role in fire season, but not how you might think. If temperatures increase by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, as some experts project, that'll lead to 6 percent more lightning strikes, according to the NWF. With every strike, there's a new opportunity for a wildfire to start.

Put all of these factors together and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that experts agree a warming climate means fire seasons will continue to explode in the coming decades.

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