The New Abnormal: Climate Effects on the Fire Season Are Just Beginning

Last year was California’s most destructive fire season — until this year. The Golden State is in the midst of what Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, calls “a multi-year fire siege.”

While it’s hard to point to climate change as the distinct cause of any individual fire, Swain calls it a “threat multiplier,” which means climate change has lead to conditions that make extreme fires more likely.