• Question: What are the main causes of wildfire?

    Asked by to Tom on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Thomas Smith

      Thomas Smith answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      For a wildfire you need all of the following:

      long period of dry weather – when the weather is dry, the forest can burn.

      some form of ignition – in nature this might be lightning, but often humans start fires on purpose, to clear the forest for farming, or arson.

      wind or slope to spread the fire – without wind or a slope, the fire might not spread anywhere and will remain where it started and might just burn out all together.

      One of the hottest topics right now in wildfire science is whether humans are leading to more fires through climate change and deforestation, and unfortunately the answer is “yes”. Climate change is generally leading to longer periods of dry weather over most of the planet, and deforestation exposes the land, making it dryer and more likely to burn. Not a good combination 🙁

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