It may sound a little obvious: heatwaves lead to more wildfire.
But the details of that relationship detailed in new research are eye-popping and have significant implications for fire managers.
“Heatwaves are actually associated with close to half of all the wildfire burned area in the western U.S. over the past 25 years,” said Dmitri Kalashnikov, lead author on a paper recently published in the journal Science Advances.
There are also significant regional variations in the findings, as seen in the grass and shrublands of the Idaho-Oregon-Nevada tristate area.
“Two-thirds of the burned area in those areas is actually heat wave-related,” Kalashnikov explained. That part of the country has seen large, intense fires this season.
For land managers and wildfire professionals, he said the findings should not direct their attention to individual hot days, but rather to the compounding effect of multiple hot days in a row.
Because human-caused climate change is making heatwaves more frequent and intense, Kalashnikov said aggressive action to reduce the burning of fossil fuels is the most important policy response.
“We have no indication saying that, ‘as the climate gets warmer, the wildfire situation should improve in the U.S.,’” he said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.