IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

ON WILDFIRE

-Sobit Lama

“The effects of climate change on temperature, precipitation levels and soil moisture are turning many of our forests into kindling during wildfire season.”

IS CLIMATE CHANGE FUELING INCREASED WILDLIFE RISKS?? As the climate warms, moisture and precipitation levels are changing, with

wet areas becoming wetter and dry areas becoming drier.

Higher summer temperature and earlier snow-melt cause soils to be drier for longer, increasing the likelihood of drought and a longer wildfire season.

These hot, dry conditions also increase the likelihood that, once wildfires are started by lightning strikes or human error, they will be more intense and long-burning.

WILDFIRES ARE ALREADY ON THE RISE!!! Wildfires in the western United States have been increasing in frequency

and duration since the mid-1980s, occurring nearly four times more often, burning more than six times the land area, and lasting almost five times as long (comparisons are between 1970-1986 and 1986-2003).

In the West and the U.S.:

A paper published in the year 2013 projected that the dry parts of the middle latitudes and Australia are likely to see more fires over the long term. The American West will become more fire-prone. So, too, with high-latitude areas, the study found, partly because the carbon-rich peat soil there will burn under extreme weather conditions.

THANK YOU!!!