Heatwaves enable wildfire activity in the western United States.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42308305.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aea1277 and PMC identifier 13274587.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
While overall impacts of heatwaves have been extensively studied, the connection between heatwaves and wildfire activity remains relatively underexplored. We analyze links between heatwaves and both wildfire occurrence and growth across the western United States (WUS) and find that 42% of burned area during 2001-2024 occurred during and immediately following heatwaves. Heatwaves facilitate significant increases in daily burned area through meteorological and fuel flammability conditions that promote new ignitions and exacerbate ongoing fire activity, with effects persisting post-heatwave in most regions. In addition, heatwaves co-occur with increased cloud-to-ground lightning that can potentially increase ignitions. Last, we observe a 2.5-fold increase in burned area in WUS forests since 2001, with ~64% of this increase coinciding with heatwaves, but without corresponding increases in nonforests. The growing influence of heatwaves in shaping burned area in WUS forests has important implications for fire management and public health and can improve predictions of wildfire risk.