Randerson quoted on climate enhanced causes of LA firestorm

In a February 19th Newsweek article on the cause of the January firestorms in Los Angeles, AirUCI faculty Jim Randerson is quoted on the effects of climate change on the intensity of wildfires.  His 2022 study found that fires sparked by such things as faulty electrical systems are more often started under hotter and drier conditions. "Human-ignited fires grow more rapidly and release more energy as they're growing," Jim said in a statement with the study's release. "They're more ferocious."  Read the article

As climate change makes fire conditions more likely, scientists have also found that the fires that humans spark tend to be worse than ones ignited by natural causes such as lightning.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2022, scientists from University of California Irvine found that the fires we spark with things such as faulty electrical systems are more often started under hotter and drier condition