Wildfires News

October 2, 2023

Top Headlines

Climate and Human Land Use Both Play Roles in Pacific Island Wildfires Past and Present

Oct. 2, 2023 — It’s long been understood that human settlement contributes to conditions that make Pacific Islands more susceptible to wildfires, such as the devastating Aug. 8 event that destroyed the Maui ...

By Air, Rain and Land: How Microbes Return After a Wildfire

Sep. 25, 2023 — Ecological disturbances like wildfires disrupt microbial communities. Researchers found that dispersal played a pivotal role in re-establishing surface-level ...

Scientists Reveal What Fuels Wildfires in Sierra Nevada Mountains

Sep. 25, 2023 — Wildfires in California, exacerbated by human-driven climate change, are getting more severe. To better manage them, there's a growing need to know exactly what fuels the blazes after they ignite. Scientists now report that one of the chief fuels of ...

Socially Vulnerable Populations Are Disproportionately Exposed to Wildfires in the Western US

Sep. 20, 2023 — People experiencing a high degree of social vulnerability are also more exposed to wildfires in Oregon and Washington as wildfire risk increases, a new study ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:10pm EDT

Alarming Results from World First Study of Two Decades of Global Smoke Pollution

Sep. 20, 2023 — The world's first study of the increase in pollution from landscape fires across the globe over the past two decades reveals that over 2 billion ...

Almost Half of Koala Habitats Will Be Under High Bushfire Threat by 2070

Sep. 18, 2023 — The research team generated a series of fire susceptibility maps. These show the proportion of Australia experiencing 'high' or 'very high' fire susceptibility increasing from 14.9% now to 15.66% by ...

Largest Historic Fire Death Toll Belongs to Aftermath of 1923 Japan Earthquake

Sep. 12, 2023 — Fires that raged in the days following the 1 September 1923 magnitude 7.9 Kant earthquake killed roughly 90% of the 105,000 people who perished in ...

New Research Highlights Opportunities to Protect Carbon and Communities from Forest Fires

Sep. 6, 2023 — As the climate and wildfire crises have intensified, so too have concerns regarding the loss of carbon captured and stored in forests from decades to ...

Wildfire, Soil Emissions Increasing Air Pollution in Remote Forests

Aug. 29, 2023 — Nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas are increasing, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, finds a new ...

Despite Fears to the Contrary, Canadian Wildfire Smoke Exposure Was Not Much Worse Than a Bad Pollen Day in New York City

Aug. 23, 2023 — New Yorkers can apparently breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. Their exposure to the smoke in June 2023 from Canadian wildfires led to only a ...

REBURN: A New Tool to Model Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond

Aug. 21, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new tool, REBURN, that can simulate large forest landscapes and wildfire dynamics over decades or centuries under different wildfire management strategies. The model can ...

Without Aggressive Climate Action, U.S. Property Values Will Take a Hit from Escalating Wildfire Risk and Tree Mortality, Study Finds

Aug. 17, 2023 — Research attempts to quantify the value of U.S. property at risk in forested areas exposed to increased ecological disturbance associated with ...

Dry Lightning Can Spark Wildfires Even Under Wetter Conditions

Aug. 14, 2023 — Dry lightning can still be disastrous even when conditions aren't so dry, a study has found. These cloud-to-ground strikes during little to no rainfall were previously thought to pose wildfire ...

Wildfires and Farming Activities May Be Top Sources of Air Pollution Linked to Increased Risk, Cases of Dementia

Aug. 14, 2023 — No amount of air pollution is good for the brain, but wildfires and the emissions resulting from agriculture and farming in particular may pose ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Wildfires Emit Potent Climate-Warming Organic Particles

Aug. 7, 2023 — Researchers found that wildfires are causing a much greater warming effect than has been accounted for by climate scientists. The work, which focuses on the role of 'dark brown carbon' -- ...

Scientists Dig Into Wildfire Predictions, Long-Term Impacts

Aug. 2, 2023 — Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. Scientists are working on several fronts to better ...

Research Supports Use of Managed and Prescribed Fires to Reduce Fire Severity

July 25, 2023 — Scientists found that fires in America's dry conifer forests are burning hotter and killing more trees today than in previous centuries. The main culprit? Paradoxically, a lack of ...

Picturing Where Wildlands and People Meet at a Global Scale

July 19, 2023 — Researchers have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool could improve responses to environmental conflicts like ...

Understanding the Many Different Ways Animals Are Evolving in Response to Fire Could Help Conservation Efforts

July 19, 2023 — In our modern era of larger, more destructive, and longer-lasting fires -- called the Pyrocene -- plants and animals are evolving quickly to survive. By synthesizing the wide body of research about ...

Hidden Cameras Spot Wildlife Returning Home After 2018 Megafire

July 18, 2023 — Researchers analyzed more than 500,000 motion-sensor camera trap images taken at a Northern California reserve in the years before and after the Mendocino Complex Fire to understand how the blaze ...

What Causes Mudslides and Floods After Wildfires? Hint: It's Not What Scientists Thought

July 17, 2023 — Scientists once assumed that flooding and mudslides after wildfires were linked to the waxy coating that builds up on charred soil, preventing water absorption. Researchers found that water flow came ...

Fungi Blaze a Trail to Fireproof Cladding

July 12, 2023 — Scientists have shown it's possible to grow fungi in thin sheets that could be used for fire-retardant cladding or even a new kind of fungal ...

Addressing Justice in Wildfire Risk Management

July 10, 2023 — The unequal distribution of wildfire risk in our society is influenced by various factors, such as social vulnerabilities and intersecting forms of inequality, including gender, age, ethnicity, or ...

Three Things to Know: Climate Change's Impact on Extreme-Weather Events

July 3, 2023 — Researchers found that the effects of climate change on the intensity, frequency, and duration of extreme weather events, like wildfires, could lead to massive increases in all ...

Wildfire Smoke Downwind Affects Health, Wealth, Mortality

June 21, 2023 — Smoke particulates from wildfires could cause between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths and cost between $36 to $82 billion per year in the United States, according to new ...

Wildfire Spread Risk Increases Where Trees, Shrubs Replace Grasses

May 18, 2023 — A new study found that as woody plants like shrubs and trees replace herbaceous plants like grasses, spot fires can occur farther away from the original fire ...

African Smoke Over the Amazon

May 16, 2023 — Up to two-thirds of the soot above the central Amazon rainforest originates in Africa. Researchers differentiate soot particles using their relative properties and attribute them to their respective ...

Scientists Discover Fire Records Embedded Within Sand Dunes

May 11, 2023 — A new study shows that sand dunes can serve as repositories of fire history and aid in expanding scientific understanding of fire regimes around the ...

Methane from Megafires: More Spew Than We Knew

Apr. 17, 2023 — Using a new detection method, scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires -- a source not currently being accounted for by California state air ...

Wildfires and Animal Biodiversity

Apr. 13, 2023 — Wildfires. Many see them as purely destructive forces, disasters that blaze through a landscape, charring everything in their paths. But a new study reminds us that wildfires are also generative ...

Bushfire Safe Rooms May Save Lives

Mar. 21, 2023 — Researchers have built and tested a bushfire safe room that exceeds current Australian standards and could keep people alive or protect valuables when evacuation is no longer an ...

New Model Provides Improved Air-Quality Predictions in Fire-Prone Areas

Mar. 14, 2023 — Globally, wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, generating a significant amount of smoke that can be transported thousands of miles, driving the need for more accurate air pollution ...

A Mechanistic and Probabilistic Method for Predicting Wildfires

Mar. 14, 2023 — In the event of dry weather and high winds, power system-ignited incidents are more likely to develop into wildfires. The risk is greater if vegetation is nearby. A new study provides the methodology ...

Smoke Particles from Wildfires Can Erode the Ozone Layer

Mar. 8, 2023 — A new study finds that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer -- and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 ...

Monday, August 7, 2023