As wildfires continue to burn, scientists throughout the state are looking into the connections between these events and climate change."In Northern California, we are seeing really high temperatures in places like the Central Valley and in parts of the eastern Bay Area, certainly temperatures are rising year after year.
According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, 10 of the largest California wildfires have occurred in the last 20 years.found a connection between record breaking California wildfires and climate change. Their data showed that "summer burned areas in northern and central California have increased fivefold during 1996 to 2021 compared to 1971 to 1995."
"If you look at the long-term climate records in California over the last 40 years or so, we have seeing it warmer by about 1.5 degrees Celsius. In terms of Fahrenheit, it's almost double. So, let's say 3 degrees warming. That is just average on the whole year," said Dennis Baldocchi, professor of Biometeorology Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California Berkeley.
"Temperatures are rising across the globe. Here in the Bay Area, we may not experience it the same way because we have the ocean that is moderating the effects of climate. It's a heat sink and it also cools the Bay Area with fog," said Marks-Block.