Current:Home > MarketsGlobal Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires -Dynamic Wealth Solutions
Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
Algosensey View
Date:2025-04-11 04:26:22
Global warming caused mainly by burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the recent deadly fires around Los Angeles about 35 times more likely to occur, an international team of scientists concluded in a rapid attribution analysis released Tuesday.
Today’s climate, heated 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 Celsius) above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, based on a 10-year running average, also increased the overlap between flammable drought conditions and the strong Santa Ana winds that propelled the flames from vegetated open space into neighborhoods, killing at least 28 people and destroying or damaging more than 16,000 structures.
“Climate change is continuing to destroy lives and livelihoods in the U.S.” said Friederike Otto, senior climate science lecturer at Imperial College London and co-lead of World Weather Attribution, the research group that analyzed the link between global warming and the fires. Last October, a WWA analysis found global warming fingerprints on all 10 of the world’s deadliest weather disasters since 2004.
Several methods and lines of evidence used in the analysis confirm that climate change made the catastrophic LA wildfires more likely, said report co-author Theo Keeping, a wildfire researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires at Imperial College London.
“With every fraction of a degree of warming, the chance of extremely dry, easier-to-burn conditions around the city of LA gets higher and higher,” he said. “Very wet years with lush vegetation growth are increasingly likely to be followed by drought, so dry fuel for wildfires can become more abundant as the climate warms.”
Park Williams, a professor of geography at the University of California and co-author of the new WWA analysis, said the real reason the fires became a disaster is because “homes have been built in areas where fast-moving, high-intensity fires are inevitable.” Climate, he noted, is making those areas more flammable.
All the pieces were in place, he said, including low rainfall, a buildup of tinder-dry vegetation and strong winds. All else being equal, he added, “warmer temperatures from climate change should cause many fuels to be drier than they would have been otherwise, and this is especially true for larger fuels such as those found in houses and yards.”
He cautioned against business as usual.
“Communities can’t build back the same because it will only be a matter of years before these burned areas are vegetated again and a high potential for fast-moving fire returns to these landscapes.”
We’re hiring!
Please take a look at the new openings in our newsroom.
See jobsveryGood! (693)
Related
- Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
- Killer Danelo Cavalcante captured in Pennsylvania with 'element of surprise': Live updates
- Lidcoin: a16z plans to advance US Crypto legislation
- Minneapolis budget plan includes millions for new employees as part of police reform effort
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- 'The Morning Show' is back, with a new billionaire
- NSYNC reunites at VMAs, gives Taylor Swift award: 'You’re pop personified'
- Wife of Mexican drug lord El Chapo to be released from prison, U.S. authorities say
- At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
- Bill Richardson is mourned in New Mexico after globe-trotting career, lies in state at Capitol
Ranking
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- Group files lawsuit over medical exceptions to abortion bans in 3 states
- Hudson River swimmer deals with fatigue, choppy water, rocks and pollution across 315 miles
- Number of U.S. nationals wrongfully held overseas fell in 2022 for the first time in 10 years, report finds
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- Catastrophic flooding in eastern Libya leaves thousands missing
- The Sweet Way Taylor Swift & Selena Gomez Proved They're Each Other's Biggest Fans at the 2023 MTV VMAs
- Lidcoin: DeFi Options Agreement Pods Finance to Close $5.6 Million Seed Round
Recommendation
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
Taylor Swift and Peso Pluma make history, Shakira's return, more top moments from 2023 MTV VMAs
Body cam video shows police administer Narcan to small puppy they say OD'd on fentanyl
Virginia legislative candidate who livestreamed sex videos draws support from women: It's a hit job
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
Crews search for driver after his truck plunged hundreds of feet into Indiana quarry
Arizona lottery player $2.4 million richer after purchasing ticket at Tempe QuikTrip
Father of slain Maryland teen: 'She jumped in front of a bullet' to save brother