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A Shorter, Sharper Rainy Season Amplifies California Wildfire Risk
Author(s) -
Swain Daniel L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2021gl092843
Subject(s) - precipitation , vegetation (pathology) , wet season , seasonality , environmental science , climate change , climatology , dry season , fire regime , physical geography , ecology , geography , ecosystem , meteorology , geology , biology , medicine , pathology
Abstract California has experienced increasingly severe autumn wildfires over the past several decades, which have exacted a rising human and environmental toll. Recent fire and climate science research has demonstrated a clear link between worsening California wildfires and climate change, mainly though the vegetation‐drying effect of rising temperatures and shifting precipitation seasonality. New work by Luković et al. (2021) explores observed changes in California's autumn precipitation in greater detail, finding that the rainy season has indeed become progressively delayed and that the “sharpness” of California precipitation seasonality has increased. These precipitation shifts have important implications for the region's ecology and wildfire risk, as they increase the degree of temporal overlap between extremely dry vegetation conditions and fire‐promoting downslope winds in late autumn. Both of these observed shifts are consistent with climate model projections for the region's future, suggesting that recent trends may offer an early preview of larger changes to come.