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The future’s wildfires are raging today, torching scientists’ earlier predictions
Scientists say the size and intensity of wildfires that we’re seeing today is alarming because it’s what they were predicting would happen 30 years down the road, not right now. Researchers in California say this year’s wildfire destruction was expected to happen much later this century. Instead, the number of scorched acres in the state doubled from 2018. And for parts of the Mountain West, California’s megafires may be a bellwether. “We’ve seen large fires break out in August 2020, which is pretty late and then to see big fires breaking out here in October and seeing the ongoing fires persisting and growing much bigger here into the fall is just not the sort of thing we’ve ever seen before,” said Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist. Colorado had also never seen a 200 000-acre blaze before this year’s Cameron Peak Fire. That’s twice the size of the city and county of Denver. Schumacher said the conditions for more extreme fires are becoming more frequent and drawn out. And while land use practices and forest management legacies are part of the problem, climate change is undoubtedly linked, too. States largely spared from extreme wildfires this year, like Idaho, are also expected to enter a new era of destructive megafires. A large portion of the Mountain West is experiencing severe to extreme drought, which is linked to an increased fire risk.
Source: KUNR |
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