Did Climate Change Worsen the Southern California Fires?
Seven of the state’s 10 largest modern wildfires have occurred in the last 14 years.
Massive wildfires are raging across Southern California, threatening thousands of homes and cultural landmarks like the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Some of the largest fires were still barely contained by Wednesday afternoon.
It’s been an unusually bad year for the state—amid an unusually bad year for the West at large. Fires in California have destroyed more than 6,000 structures and incinerated hundreds of thousands of acres. Montana and British Columbia both also had some of their worst wildfire seasons ever.
Of course, most years are bad wildfire years now. Seven of California’s 10 largest modern wildfires in the last 14 years. (The
