Climate change will boost number of U.S. West's wildfires

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Climate change will boost number of U.S. West's wildfires

WASHINGTON | Tue Jun 12, 2012 8:31am EDT
(Reuters) - Climate change will make U.S. western wildfires, like those now raging in parts of Colorado and New Mexico, more frequent over the next 30 years, researchers reported on Tuesday.

More broadly, almost all of North America and most of Europe will see wildfires more often by the year 2100, the scientists wrote in the journal Ecosphere, a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

Using satellite-based fire records and 16 different climate change models, the international team of researchers found that while wildfires will increase in many temperate zones due to rising temperatures, fire risk may actually decrease around the Equator, especially in tropical rainforests, because of increased rainfall.

"In the long run, we found what most fear - increasing fire activity across large areas of the planet," lead author Max Moritz of the University of California-Berkeley.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/12/us-climate-wildfires-idUSBRE85B09420120612

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Analysis of global fire risk shows big, fast changes ahead (due to climate change)

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/06/12/climate-change-global-fire-risk/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Analysis of global fire risk shows big, fast changes ahead[/font]

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | June 12, 2012

[font size=3]BERKELEY — Climate change is widely expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world, with some regions, such as the western United States, seeing more frequent fires within the next 30 years, according to a new analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with an international team of scientists.

By the end of the century, almost all of North America and most of Europe is projected to see a jump in the frequency of wildfires, primarily because of increasing temperature trends. At the same time, fire activity could actually decrease around equatorial regions, particularly among the tropical rainforests, because of increased rainfall.

The study, published today (Tuesday, June 12) in Ecosphere, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the Ecological Society of America, used 16 different climate change models to generate what the researchers said is one of the most comprehensive projections to date of how climate change might affect global fire patterns.

“In the long run, we found what most fear — increasing fire activity across large parts of the planet,” said study lead author Max Moritz, fire specialist in UC Cooperative Extension. “But the speed and extent to which some of these changes may happen is surprising.”

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES11-00345.1