Hydroclimatic Rebound Drives Extreme Fire in California's Non-Forested Ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: The catastrophic Los Angeles Fires of January 2025 underscore the urgent need to understand the complex interplay between hydroclimatic variability and wildfire behavior. This study investigates how sequential wet and dry periods, hydroclimatic rebound events, create compounding environmental conditions that culminate in extreme fire events. Our results show that a cascade of moisture anomalies, from the atmosphere to vegetation health, precedes these fires by around 6-27 months. This is followed by a drying cascade 6 months before ignition that results in anomalously high and dry fuel loads conducive to fires. These patterns are confirmed when analyzing recent (2012-2025) extreme fire events in Mediterranean and Desert Californian biomes. We find hydroclimatic rebound as a key mechanism d

SUBMITTER: McNorton J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12421371 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature