If Sea Ice Melts in the Arctic, Do Trees Burn in California?
Fire and Ice: The Puzzling Link Between Western Wildfires and Arctic Sea Ice What’s behind the worsening wildfires in the Western United States?…
We all know that the weather is changing, and we’re not just talking about the rising temperatures. The one thing that’s sure to change with the changing climate is the amount of fire season in California. This year, fires have been burning for weeks at a time and have already burned thousands of acres.
Some people have linked this problem to global warming, but it’s more complicated than that. While wildfires are caused by both natural factors and human activity (such as logging), they are also strongly influenced by changes in weather patterns like El Niño or La Niña.
The El Niño effect refers to warm water from the Pacific Ocean shifting towards South America, which can cause cooler-than-normal temperatures in some areas of Southern California during winter months. These cooler temperatures help prevent fires from starting or spreading quickly over large areas, especially when there is rain or snowfall around those areas—which means that it’s harder for them to start in the first place!
But even when there isn’t drought or flooding happening around these areas, there are still other factors at play here: California is surrounded on three sides by mountains that act like windbreakers; so while winds can blow down trees and brush onto
