Decreasing fire season precipitation increased recent western US forest wildfire activity.

ABSTRACT: Western United States wildfire increases have been generally attributed to warming temperatures, either through effects on winter snowpack or summer evaporation. However, near-surface air temperature and evaporative demand are strongly influenced by moisture availability and these interactions and their role in regulating fire activity have never been fully explored. Here we show that previously unnoted declines in summer precipitation from 1979 to 2016 across 31-45% of the forested areas in the western United States are strongly associated with burned area variations. The number of wetting rain days (WRD; days with precipitation ≥2.54 mm) during the fire season partially regulated the temperature and subsequent vapor pressure deficit (VPD) previously implicated as a primary driver of annu

SUBMITTER: Holden ZA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6130364 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature