New Study Links Western U.S. Wildfires To Atlantic Ocean Surface Temperatures

Western U.S. wildfires are likely to increase in the coming decades, according to a new tree-ring study that links episodic fire outbreaks in the past five centuries with periods of warming sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic. States like Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and South Dakota all had an increased prevalence of wildfires in recent centuries when a phenomenon known as the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation -- similar but longer in duration than the better known El Nino-Southern Oscillation -- periodically shifted from a cool to a warm mode that lasted roughly 60 years each time. Warmer waters in the North Atlantic correspond with episodes of drought and subsequent fires in the West as shown by fire scars in annual tree rings studied by the researchers.