The growing intensity and extremity of recent wildfires has been researched by scientists at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Researchers are trying to understand how one of our most significant climate patterns -- the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -- is being affected by a warming Earth and how, in turn, is that pattern affecting the likelihood and intensity of future wildfires. Their studies have showed that the sensitivity of land temperature and precipitation to changes in tropical Pacific Ocean temperature is increasing due to climate change. Therefore in fire-prone places like California and Australia, we can expect future El Niño and La Niña events to have a bigger impact on fire risk in a given year.
Journal Reference:
J. T. Fasullo, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, S. Stevenson. ENSO's Changing Influence on Temperature, Precipitation, and Wildfire In a Warming Climate. Geophysical Research Letters, 2018; DOI: 10.1029/2018GL079022