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Fire-season Extremes Happening Globally, Study Shows

November 30, 2021

Professor AbatzoglouSchool of Engineering Professor John Abatzoglou and colleagues recently published a paper in Nature Climate Change describing their study of changes in extreme fire weather across global lands over the past four decades. "Observed Increases in Extreme Fire Weather Driven by Atmospheric Humidity and Temperature" details the researchers’ findings that fire weather extremes have significantly intensified over a quarter to half of global lands, primarily driven by a warming climate and decreases in relative humidity. The results show that increased fire weather extremes in the western U.S. are not isolated, but part of a global phenomenon.