Current:Home > reviewsIndexbit Exchange:Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires -TradeWisdom
Indexbit Exchange:Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
FinLogic FinLogic Quantitative Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-09 18:27:36
Global warming caused mainly by burning of fossil fuels made the hot,Indexbit Exchange 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! (168)
Related
- Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
- Daniel Radcliffe Welcomes First Baby With Girlfriend Erin Darke
- Kate Middleton Gives a Clue on Her Coronation Outfit for King Charles III's Regal Celebration
- Zendaya Takes Coachella 2023 Stage for Surprise First Live Performance in 8 Years
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- Dancing With the Stars' Len Goodman Predicted His Death 4 Months Before His Passing
- 3 lessons from the Western U.S. for dealing with wildfire smoke
- Dancing With the Stars' Len Goodman Dead at 78
- South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
- After January storms, some California communities look for long-term flood solutions
Ranking
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- See Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Royally Suite Date Night at Lakers Game
- Cut emissions quickly to save lives, scientists warn in a new U.N. report
- What — And Who — Is To Blame For Extreme Heat?
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
- Gigi Hadid’s Daughter Khai Proves She’s Next in Fashion With These Adorable Photos
- Sofia Richie Marries Elliot Grainge During Lavish Ceremony in South of France
- Climate change is our reality — so why wouldn't it appear on reality TV?
Recommendation
Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
How to stay safe from the smoke that's spreading from the Canadian wildfires
El Niño is coming. Here's what that means for weather in the U.S.
A meteorologist got threats for his climate coverage. His new job is about solutions
EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
Julian Sands' cause of death deemed undetermined weeks after remains found in California mountains
Kate Spade 24-Hour Flash Deal: Get This $360 Satchel Bag for Just $89
A new satellite could help clean up the air in America's most polluted neighborhoods