![]() "The last 100 years of fire suppression has allowed for a large build up of fuels (vegetation) on the landscape. Human interference with wildfires has made the problem even worse, said Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Newsweek has contacted the Abbott office for comment. "Irresponsibly, Texas hasn't conducted a state-wide climate change vulnerability assessment or prepared an adaptation plan." "Texas faces the worst overall wildfire threat in the nation and by 2050, the average number of days with high wildfire potential is projected to double from 40 to nearly 80 days a year, he says. Stock image: helicopter carrying water bucket to extinguish a wildfire. In Texas, an estimated 19,639,828 people currently reside in drought areas.Īs Luke Metzger, the executive director for Environment Texas, tells Newsweek, meteorologists have warned that 2022 may be similar to 2011 for drought-Texas' worst drought and worst wildfire season ever. This month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster proclamation regarding wildfires in counties across the state. In the last three years, Alaska, California, Oregon, Texas, and Utah are the top six states with the most acres burned by wildfires, and wildfire season is now beginning to last between six and eight months. Wildfires used to mostly occur within a four-month period, and tended to affect the western U.S. Until we adopt robust policies to reduce emissions and address global warming, climate change will keep exacerbating our wildfire problem." "In many parts of the country, wildfire season is now virtually year round. Five of California's ten largest wildfires on record occurred in 2020, as the state set a new record for acres burned." The number of annual large fires in the West has tripled. "There have always been wildfires, but it's hard to deny that things are different now. "Climate change has made wildfires worse," Matthew Casale, environment campaigns director for Public Interest Research Group (a non-profit organization that advocates for the interest of the public), told Newsweek. for that matter, in severe drought conditions or worse, the condition is certainly ripe for a bad wildfire season," he told Newsweek.ĭrought is a large contributing factor to wildfires: as grasses, trees and other vegetation dry out, they become more flammable, increasing both the probability of ignition and the rate at which a fire spreads. "With almost the entire state of California, and the majority of the southwest U.S. was drier than it had been for over a thousand years.Īccording to Mingfang Ting, a Lamont research professor and associate director for Ocean and Climate Physics at Columbia University, the ongoing drought in western states is directly related to the La Niña condition that emerged in August 2020, causing low rainfall two winters in a row. In February this year, researchers declared that the western U.S. Temperatures have soared to record levels, with 12 states hitting 100 F this week. states are currently experiencing extreme droughts due to climate change, which could mean that wildfires are no longer restricted to the summer months. Texas, California, and several other U.S. ![]()
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