Wildfire threat spreads across warming world

Click here to access article by Tim Radford from Climate News Central. 

As climate change warms the world vegetation dries, rainfall patterns waver and the threat of wildfire spreads.

The author reports on a research study published in Nature Communications (behind a paywall).

William Jolly of the US Forest Service in Missoula, Montana and colleagues say they examined the fire season worldwide for the study period, taking into consideration all the factors that are used to calculate fire hazard: wind, humidity and temperature, as well as rainfall levels.

They found that the combined changes in the surface weather have meant that the fire season has increased so far by 18.7%