Nov 8, 2006
North Pacific warming and intense northwestern U.S. wildfires
by
,
Geophysical Research Letters
- States that tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies such as La Nina have been an important predictor for wildfires in the southeastern and southwestern U.S
- Seeks seasonal predictors for wildfires in the northwestern U.S., a region with the most intense wildfires among various continental U.S. regions
- Applies singular value decomposition and regression techniques to summer wildfire and current and antecedent SST conditions during a period of 23 years
- Finds that warming in the North Pacific is a major feature in the SST spatial pattern related to intense Northwest wildfires
- Finds that the warming appeared in all the major wildfire events during the past two decades and that the relation is statistically significant
- Concludes that the North Pacific SST has potential to be a predictor for seasonal Northwest wildfires