{"id":22357,"date":"2012-06-12T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T07:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=22357"},"modified":"2012-06-12T00:01:59","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T07:01:59","slug":"new-study-projects-more-frequent-fires-for-the-western-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/06\/12\/new-study-projects-more-frequent-fires-for-the-western-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Projects More Frequent Fires for the Western U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A new study projects fires in the western U.S. will become more frequent within the next 30 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Large fires in the western U.S. — such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico <\/a>— may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n

The study, published Tuesday in the journal <\/a>Ecosphere<\/a>,<\/em> analyzed the results of 16 different global climate change models. The models included variables such as annual precipitation and mean temperature of the warmest month and projected an increase in the frequency of fires across the majority of North America and much of Europe within the next 30 years.<\/p>\n

“In the long run, we found what most fear \u2014 increasing fire activity across large parts of the planet,” said study lead author Max Moritz, a fire specialist with UC Berkeley<\/a>, in a press release. “But the speed and extent to which some of these changes may happen is surprising.”<\/p>\n

While the models diverge in their predictions for certain parts of the world, there was wide agreement about a growing fire risk in the western United States, a conclusion that supports other recent studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[module align=”left” width=”half” type=”pull-quote”]”We need to learn how to build accordingly, to plan our neighborhoods and developments…and climate change is going to force our hand.” [\/module]<\/p>\n

Moritz said the findings do not account for short-term shifts in the climate, such those brought on by El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>. He also cautioned against connecting the study\u2019s results to, say, this week\u2019s red flag warnings in northern California<\/a> or the small weed fires that broke out this weekend in Milpitas and San Jose<\/a>. Moritz pointed out these events are likely attributable to offshore winds \u2013 such as the Santa Anas<\/a> and Diablos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these wind-related phenomena are built into our models,\u201d said Moritz. \u201cLike the El Ni\u00f1o signal, the global climate models do not give us good wind projections.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he did offer a powerful takeaway message of the study to millions of Californians living in fire-prone areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t \u2018fight\u2019 earthquakes, floods or hurricanes. But we fight fire,\u201d said Moritz. \u201cThe bottom line is that we need to learn to accommodate and coexist with this natural process, particularly in places like California. We need to learn how to build accordingly, to plan our neighborhoods and developments…And climate change is going to force our hand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Large fires in the western U.S. — such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico — may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Ecosphere, analyzed the results of … Continue reading New Study Projects More Frequent Fires for the Western U.S.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6335,"featured_media":22358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-22357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thescience","tag-wildfire"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nNew Study Projects More Frequent Fires for the Western U.S. | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/06\/12\/new-study-projects-more-frequent-fires-for-the-western-u-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Study Projects More Frequent Fires for the Western U.S. | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Large fires in the western U.S. — such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico — may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley. 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