A new UC Riverside study shows soot from large wildfires in California traps sunlight, making days warmer and drier than they ought to be.
A new UC Riverside study shows soot from large wildfires in California traps sunlight, making days warmer and drier than they ought to be.
Many studies look at the effect of climate change on wildfires. However, this study sought to understand the reverse — whether large fires are also changing the climate.
“I wanted to learn how the weather is affected by aerosols emitted by wildfires as they’re burning,” said lead study author and UCR doctoral candidate James Gomez.
To find his answers, Gomez analyzed peak fire days and emissions from every fire season over the past 20 years. Of these fire days, he examined a subset that occurred when temperatures were lower, and humidity was higher. “I looked at abnormally cool or wet days during fire season, both with and without fires. This mostly takes out the fire weather effects,” Gomez said.
Read more at University of California - Riverside
Photo Credit: geralt via Pixabay
