Precipitation

Ecology

Wet season

Fire regime

Dry season

Climatology

Geography

Seasonality

Geology

Climate change

Meteorology

Biology

Ecosystem

Pathology

Environmental science

Medicine

Physical geography

Vegetation (pathology)

Geophysical Research Letters

California has experienced increasingly severe autumn wildfires over the past several decades, which have exacted a rising human and environmental toll. Recent fire and climate science research has demonstrated a clear link between worsening California wildfires and climate change, mainly though the vegetation‐drying effect of rising temperatures and shifting precipitation seasonality. New work by Luković et al. (2021) explores observed changes in California's autumn precipitation in greater detail, finding that the rainy season has indeed become progressively delayed and that the “sharpness” of California precipitation seasonality has increased. These precipitation shifts have important implications for the region's ecology and wildfire risk, as they increase the degree of temporal overlap between extremely dry vegetation conditions and fire‐promoting downslope winds in late autumn. Both of these observed shifts are consistent with climate model projections for the region's future, suggesting that recent tre...

A Shorter, Sharper Rainy Season Amplifies California Wildfire Risk