We used to define fire by seasons: they varied from place to place, but there was a period of time that fires were not reliably seen before, and a date they probably wouldn’t be seen after. That is no longer the case, as the destructive fires burning this December in Southern California make clear.
The above chart shows all fires that burned over 300 acres each year from 2000 to 2017 in California, including this months’ blazes.
The future, right now: We tend to talk about extreme weather and fire events as a "glimpse into our future under climate change." But these previously-rare events are increasingly common. "If ‘unexpected’ becomes the norm, because we only talk about extreme weather, how do we change the conversation?" Jeff Rosenfeld, the editor in chief of the bulletin of the American Meteorlogical Society, asked at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting on Wednesday.