Publication Date April 1, 2022 | AP

Fire and rain: West to get more one-two extreme climate hits

Western US
From left, Laura Tyson, Tod Smith and Rebecca Caldwell, residents of Eldorado Springs, watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs. (Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)
From left, Laura Tyson, Tod Smith and Rebecca Caldwell, residents of Eldorado Springs, watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs. (Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)

Climate Signals summary: A new study discusses the compounding effects of human-caused climate change as a new study finds that intense wildfires will be followed by severe flooding more frequently in the American west in coming years.


Article excerpt: 

The one-two punch of nasty wildfires followed by heavy downpours, triggering flooding and mudslides, will strike the U.S. West far more often in a warming-hopped world, becoming a frequent occurrence, a new study said.

That fire-flood combination, with extreme drenchings hitting a spot that burned within a year, could increase as much as eight-fold in the Pacific Northwest, double in California and jump about 50% in Colorado by the year 2100 in a worst-case climate change scenario of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study in Friday’s Science Advances.

The study said that as human-caused climate change intensifies, 90% of extreme fire events will be followed by at least three extraordinary downpours in the same location within five years.

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https://apnews.com/article/climate-floods-wildfires-science-california-0b3fa035ca7b2dbf47ffc84919c0c4ac