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How Climate Change Is Fueling Extreme Weather [1]

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Date: 2026-06 

Wildfires have always been a natural part of life in the western United States and Canada. However, as this region grows hotter and drier, wildfires are growing in size, ferocity, and speed.

The hazardous air pollution that wildfire smoke creates can spread far beyond the region burned. In summer 2023, smoke wafting down from nearly 900 wildfires tearing through Canada triggered air quality alerts that affected as many as 70 million people across the eastern United States.

And then there’s the destruction on the ground.

In recent years, California has been particulary prone to devastating blazes. With record dry, hot conditions across the state, seasonal high winds (known as Diablo in Northern California and Santa Ana in the southern part of the state) caused wildfires to grow and spread at an unprecedented rate.

California wildfires burned more than 4 million acres in 2020 — an area larger than Connecticut — making 2020 the biggest fire season in state history. The Camp Fire in 2018 — California’s single most destructive, and deadliest, wildfire in history — destroyed an average of one football field worth of land every three seconds and killed 68 people, according to CAL FIRE.

And it’s not just California. Oregon, Washington, and Colorado have also seen explosive fires that have forced thousands to evacuate, claimed lives, and destroyed homes and businesses.

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[1] Url: https://earthjustice.org/feature/how-climate-change-is-fueling-extreme-weather

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