There’s not necessarily an increase in the number of fires in the West, “but the fires are bigger, more severe and last longer, so the total area burned per year is rapidly increasing,” said Morgan Tingley, an ecologist at UCLA.
year. The blaze is only the beginning of the West’s fire season, which traditionally peaks between mid-July and October.
The Western United States has what’s called a Mediterranean climate, which means that most of its rain comes during the winter months, which are wet and cool. It also means that summer, the region’s driest season, aligns with its hottest, creating suitable conditions for a fire. After thousands of years, Western vegetation has adapted to frequent fire. Some pine trees have developed thick cones, known as serotinous cones, that are glued shut with a strong resin. To reproduce, these trees actually need fires, which melt the resin, allowing the cones to open up and release seeds.
The West has warmed 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit on average compared with a century ago. Higher temperatures and a lack of rainfall has killed small plants, dried out vegetation and caused deciduous trees to shed their leaves earlier in the season. Beginning in the 20th century, though, the Western United States had a policy of aggressive fire suppression, which meant that fires were put out as quickly as possible. In 1935, the U.S. Forest Service instituted the “10 a.m. policy,” which aimed to contain any fire by 10 a.m. the day following its initial report.
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