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Climate and wildfire in the western United States

Anthony Leroy Westerling, Alexander Gershunov, Tim J. Brown, Daniel R. Cayan, Michael D. Dettinger
Summary - what did the authors do and why?

The authors combined datasets for wildfire starts and acres burned from federal land management agencies including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service (NPS), and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to evaluate interannual relationships between climate and wildfire activity across the western U.S.

Publication findings:

Although they vary widely across regional and temporal gradients, throughout the West moisture anomalies from two years up to the spring proceeding the fire season are widely linked to fire activity.

Climate and Fire Linkages

How does drought relate to annual area burned and fire size?

Although they vary widely across regional and temporal gradients, throughout the West moisture anomalies from two years up to the spring proceeding the fire season are widely linked to fire activity.