The Age of Megafires: The World Hits a Climate Tipping Point
From Siberia to Australia to the western U.S., massive fires have consumed millions of acres this year and spawned fire-generated tornados and other phenomena rarely seen before. Scientists say the world has entered a perilous new era that will demand better ways of fighting wildfires.
BY ED STRUZIK • SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
... Lightning triggers fires, even as far north as Alaska. But no one dreamed that a thunderstorm could shoot out 65,000 lightning strikes and ignite more than 270 fires as one did in Alaska in 2015. More than five million acres burned that year.
Humans are by far the main cause of fire in California. But it was 12,000 lightning strikes that caused the huge blazes this summer, with lightning triggering 585 fires across the state. Southern California’s most destructive fires used to come in the fall, when the hot, dry Santa Ana winds blew in. In recent years, however, summer wildfires have become more common, as UCLA scientist Alex Hall predicted, leaving the state now facing two damaging fire seasons, created in part by the growing number of lightning strikes.
Like so many aspects of the burgeoning number of wildfires, the increase in lightning is connected to climate change. Lighting increases by about 12 percent for every 1 degree Celsius temperature increase. Simple mathematics, and many studies, suggest that there will be much more lightning in some places as temperatures rise by another 2 or 3 degrees C this century in wildlands that are already severely stressed by drought, disease, and insects such as the mountain pine beetle.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-age-of-megafires-the-world-hits-a-climate-tipping-point
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