Los Angeles wildfires: Climate change is causing delayed onset of autumn and winter rains in parts of California and the second-lowest rainfall in 150 years in Los Angeles through July 2024, report says Has happened. He said the planet-warming gases from burning oil, coal and gas are making wildfires in California more frequent and dangerous.
Vegetation is drying out along with rising temperatures, making the area more vulnerable to burning, the report said. Fires caused by high winds are common this time of year, but the recent fires in Los Angeles are more dangerous because conditions are often drier as a result of climate change.
Experts said the current conditions serve as evidence of multiple factors fueling these extreme events and one of them is rising temperatures.
“We have clear evidence that climate change is contributing to warming not only globally, but also in the Southern California region. We know that there is an increasing risk that wind and other weather conditions come together “, and it increases the likelihood of severe wildfires,” Stanford climate scientist Dr. Noah Diffenbaugh was quoted as saying by ABC News.
‘hot and dry’
Wildfires in Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people and destroyed nearly 10,000 structures, with five burning for a third night Thursday as dry desert winds fanned the flames again .
Human-caused climate change has made California hotter and drier, making it easier for fires to start and spread. The report says that due to this a large area is burning every year. The area burned each year by wildfire in California is now five times larger than in the 1970s, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrology, space and planetary scientists. Is. A paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) says that almost all of this increase is due to climate change.
Climate change has made it easier for fires to spread rapidly in California; About 25 percent more fires now spread much faster, the report said.
The January 2025 fire appears to have been caused by high winds. Although winds are not unusual at this time of year, the late onset of rain means it is unusually dry. The report said climate change is increasing the likelihood of stronger winds and drier conditions, which could combine to intensify fires.
June and July were the warmest on record in California, and October was the second warmest, with many of those hot days scientifically linked to climate change. 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded globally due to climate change. This heat and lack of rainfall caused the vegetation to dry out when the Santa Ana winds began.
We have clear evidence that climate change is contributing to warming not only globally, but also in the Southern California region.
