Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1038/s41612-025-01021-z
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Growing human-induced climate change fingerprint in regional weekly fire extremes
Autor Feng, S.; Zscheischler, J. ORCID logo ; Hao, Z.; Bevacqua, E. ORCID logo
Quelle npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
Department CER
Band/Volume 8
Seite von art. 152
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41612-025-01021-z/MediaObjects/41612_2025_1021_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Abstract Wildfires cause large damage to natural and human systems. Despite the clear connection between human-induced climate change and increased fire weather risk, a global, systematic attribution of observed extreme fires to human-induced climate change is lacking. Here, we address this gap by first linking observed regional weekly burned area extremes (>85th percentile) to the fire weather index (FWI) during the fire seasons of 2002–2015 via a logistic regression model, and then using simulations from climate models to quantify the impact of human-induced climate change. Focusing on regions with good predictability of the statistical model, we find that human-induced climate change was responsible for a fraction equal to 8% (±4%, standard deviation across climate models) of the predicted probability of more than 700 regional fire extremes on average, thereby increasing the probability of experiencing a fire extreme across 15 out of 19 analysed regions. While higher temperature is the main driver of the increased fire extreme probability, shifts in precipitation, relative humidity, and/or wind speed substantially modulated fire changes across many regions. Mainly because of warming, the probability of extreme fires attributable to human-induced climate change increased by 5.2%/decade globally over 2002–2015, in line with an acceleration of the climate-driven enhancement of fire extremes over the last decades that may continue in the near future. These findings highlight the urgent need for sustainable fire management strategies.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30698
Feng, S., Zscheischler, J., Hao, Z., Bevacqua, E. (2025):
Growing human-induced climate change fingerprint in regional weekly fire extremes
npj Clim. Atmos. Sci. 8 , art. 152 10.1038/s41612-025-01021-z