Environmental Studies and Forestry

Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally

J. T. Abatzoglou, C. A. Kolden, et al.

Global forests have faced devastating fire years; this study finds extreme regional fire years commonly coincide with 1-in-15-year fire weather indices and produce four- to five-fold increases in large fires and fire carbon emissions. Under a contemporary (2011–2040) climate such extreme FWI years are 88–152% more likely than in a quasi-preindustrial climate, especially in temperate and Amazonian forests. Research conducted by John T. Abatzoglou, Crystal A. Kolden, Alison C. Cullen, Mojtaba Sadegh, Emily L. Williams, Marco Turco, and Matthew W. Jones.