The U.S. Forest Service has moved forward with a rule to withdraw protections from 45 million acres of pristine national forests.
wildfires
Posted inNews
Scientists Define a New Category of Heat Wave: “Snow Eaters”
Unseasonably warm weather that rapidly melts snowpack is becoming more widespread in the U.S. West and happening earlier in the year.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Climate Change Made This Summer’s Canadian Wildfires Twice as Likely
Wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and the Northwest Territories have burned more than 3.9 million hectares this summer, prompted widespread evacuation orders, and created poor air quality for not only Canadians, but more than 120 million people across the midwestern and northeastern United States. The fires spread exceptionally quickly, stressing the resources of local response agencies. About 700 fires are still active across Canada.
According to a new analysis, human-induced climate change and its contribution to fire conditions across Canada made these fires twice as likely to occur. The report is from World Weather Attribution, an international climate science partnership.
Posted inNews
Heat, Drought, Wildfires: Climate Change Supercharges Disasters in Europe
Western Europe is experiencing a summer of weather extremes.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Climate Change Made Spain Wildfires At Least 20 Times More Likely
Over the past two weeks, large wildfires in southwestern France and central Spain have burned 255,000 hectares, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and created extremely poor air quality even hundreds of kilometers away. Though firefighters have now contained the major fires, a forecasted heat wave and windy weather are threatening to worsen the situation.
Climate change played a role in creating the conditions for these fires to burn and spread, a new analysis has found.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Amid USFS Upheaval, Utah and Colorado Are Burning
The fires come in the wake of historically low amounts of snow in the American West, as well as organizational changes at the U.S. Forest Service.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
As Wildfires Increase in the West, So Does Suppression Spending
A new study projects the intertwined relationship between fires and the money spent fighting them.
Posted inNews
A New Approach Can Better Predict Debris Flow Hazards Years After Fires
USGS hazard maps don’t always reflect real landslide risk in the years after wildfires. Fine-tuning assessments of vegetation recovery could help.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Much Will Western Wildfires Worsen Under Warming?
A new study reevaluates the use of vapor pressure deficit, or VPD, in climate models to predict increases in area burned by wildfire across the U.S. West.
Posted inNews
Low Snow in Eurasia Linked to Wildfires in California
Scientists found that low autumn snow levels in western Eurasia are associated with dry, warm winters in California, increasing the Golden State’s wildfire risk.