Shifting Seasons: Wildfire activity and our warming world

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Last year was a record year for wildfires in Oregon, as 1.93 million acres were burned, surpassing the old record of 1.2 million acres, set in 2012. Is this a byproduct of the warmer and drier climate? Can we expect more intense fires in the near future?

KTVZ Chief Meteorologist John Carroll spoke with Dr. Erica Fleischman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute and Professor at Oregon State University. Here's what she had to say:

"The world is becoming a warmer place, the western United States is becoming a drier place, our population is increasing, so you have more people in areas that are increasingly fire-prone.

"As weather patterns change, it can become more difficult to suppress these wildfires, so increasingly wildland firefighters are reporting extreme wildfire behavior.

"We now have large fires that are burning in really hot and windy conditions. They are creating their own weather patterns, and it just isn’t safe to be on the ground or planes to be flying through these areas. If you have a wind-driven fire, and that is the most destructive to human lives and property, it is just not safe to have people in that fire path."        

The population numbers are growing ... more people, more sparks, more fires. The fuels are not native to the landscape.   

Cheatgrass over the High Desert grows in early spring and dies by late spring, leaving dry brush that once ignited will cause accelerated and rapid-fire growth.   

Extended periods of drought have dried out the ground litter ... leaves, pine straw and sticks, if left unmanaged, will intensify the fire potential and the rapid growth.  

So we have these variables, all contributing factors to growing wildfire behavior, but now…. add in a warmer climate, which is happening, and you double down on the danger and devastation.       

We can do things that will help. Prescribed burns will reduce the undergrowth in forests, planting fire-resistant plants will help, being aware of our behavior when we are out and about. All of these will help. We are not going to stop the wildfires, but we can do our best to try to stop them before they start.