How climate change contributed to the Los Angeles fires » Yale Climate Connections

Transcript:

In early January, the Palisades fire erupted in the Santa Monica mountains near Los Angeles, tearing through the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.

That same day, the Eaton fire also roared to life, devastating nearby Altadena, California.

These fires raged for weeks, killed dozens of people, destroyed thousands of homes, and forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate. It was one of the worst and most expensive fire events in U.S. history.

And World Weather Attribution, a team of climate scientists, has found that the weather conditions that enabled those wildfires were made 35% more likely by climate change.

Wildfires have always been a fact of life around Los Angeles.

But as the planet warms, many places – including Southern California – are experiencing higher temperatures and more intense droughts.

That can dry out vegetation and soils, making it much easier for wildfires to spread quickly and become more destructive.

In recent decades, large fires have already become more common in much of the United States. And as the climate continues to warm, many parts of the country may suffer even more frequent and severe wildfires.

Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media