Extreme wildfire activity has more than doubled worldwide.
NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites detect active wildfires twice each day. Scientists studied this data over a 21-year span and found that extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense, and larger. The largest increase in extreme fire behavior was in the temperate conifer forests of the Western U.S. and the boreal forests of northern North America and Russia. Warmer nighttime temperatures are a major contributing factor, allowing fire activity to persist overnight.
Fire weather is becoming more common, and human activities are the main cause.
Although some variations in the weather are natural, human-caused climate change has been found to be the main cause for increasing fire weather in the American West.
As the planet warms ([url]https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/?intent=111[/url]), hotter weather, earlier melting of winter snow, warmer nighttime temperatures, and decreasing summer rainfall are all contributing to increased fire activity. In the Western U.S., the amount of summertime precipitation has the biggest effect on how much land area is burned in a given year.
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[url]https://science.nasa.gov/earth/explore/wildfires-and-climate-change/[/url]
NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites detect active wildfires twice each day. Scientists studied this data over a 21-year span and found that extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense, and larger. The largest increase in extreme fire behavior was in the temperate conifer forests of the Western U.S. and the boreal forests of northern North America and Russia. Warmer nighttime temperatures are a major contributing factor, allowing fire activity to persist overnight.
Fire weather is becoming more common, and human activities are the main cause.
Although some variations in the weather are natural, human-caused climate change has been found to be the main cause for increasing fire weather in the American West.
As the planet warms ([url]https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/?intent=111[/url]), hotter weather, earlier melting of winter snow, warmer nighttime temperatures, and decreasing summer rainfall are all contributing to increased fire activity. In the Western U.S., the amount of summertime precipitation has the biggest effect on how much land area is burned in a given year.
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[url]https://science.nasa.gov/earth/explore/wildfires-and-climate-change/[/url]
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