Alex Gonzalez, Public News Service, AZ
A new report found Arizona is experiencing some of the greatest increases in annual fire weather days, with some areas seeing around two more months of fire weather compared to a half century ago.
Kaitlyn Trudeau, senior climate science research associate at Climate Central, said “fire weather” refers to the meteorological conditions which kick-start the spread of fire. And with Arizona being one of the states seeing more days with persistent hotter temperatures, lower relative humidity and stronger winds, it is something Trudeau called worrisome.
“When we look at which variables, what’s really changing this, we’re seeing that it is really relative to humidity,” Trudeau explained. “We’re seeing a huge increase in the number of these really dry days. One of the main reasons for that is climate change. It is getting warmer, it is quite warmer, especially in the Southwest.”
Trudeau pointed out warmer air can hold more water, and as the temperature increases, the atmosphere gets thirstier, which can then pull more moisture out of the landscape. She added as we continue to see the increasing influence of human-caused climate change, Trudeau contended humans need to rethink their effects on the environment. She hopes the report will serve as a wake-up call and also help people understand risks where they live.
The U.S. Fire Administration has a list of seven steps communities can take to be more prepared. Trudeau noted other fire-adaptation strategies include increased use of land-management techniques such as prescribed burns to eliminate excessive fuels, but even those have become more of a challenge.
“In order to do prescribed burning, you have to have a very specific set of weather conditions, and they’re basically the opposite of fire weather conditions, because it is really dangerous to burn anything when you have really hot, dry, windy days.”
Trudeau added as the number of fire weather days increases, it also decreases the ability to do things like prescribed burning. She encouraged people around the country to create defensible space around their homes as well as create toolkits and an evacuation plan in case of an emergency.
