Wildfire Season Starts Early as Climate Change Fuels Combustible Conditions

The 2022 wildfire season arrived early this year, with fires blazing in April, months before the typical peak of wildfires across the American west. Extreme conditions, such as severe drought and high temperatures, exacerbated by climate change have significantly fueled the already active fire season.

Already this year, wildfires have burned close to 1.3 million acres across the U.S., outpacing the ten-year average for this time of year by more than 71 percent, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The season going forward is forecast to be above normal, fueled by warmer temperatures, strong winds, and other factors. Indeed, the NIFC wrote in an update that a build-up of “fuels such as dead trees and brush combines with drought to create a tinderbox ready to burn.” Furthermore, extreme conditions aggravated by climate change are increasing the frequency and size of wildfires. One study found that since the early 2000s, wildfires have become four times as large and tripled in frequency. Read more at the Guardian.