Climate Change Increasing Wildfire Days as Drought Persists

Temperatures have been steadily on the rise, especially over the past 20 years with some of the hottest global years on record. The increasing temperatures is causing drier conditions and more drought all leading to wildfire seasons that are worse than ever.

Just look at this data below and you can see that most of the West has experienced an increasing number of wildfire days. On average the Bay Area is seeing 100 more wildfire days, while the Sierra is averaging 74 more days.

This wildfire season has been an example of those increased fire days. The Dixie and Caldor fires have threatened areas that haven’t seen wildfire in decades. As our current drought (8/31/21) continues we’ll see elevated fire danger even when the wind is calm. You’ll see in this map below that drought now covers all of California.

What we really need is rain! There is indications the pattern could change and allow some rain to develop in Northern California by the end of September. It’s still early out on this but promising to see signals of change.

You can find out more about our changing climate and all of our stories in this link.