Out of the Ordinary December Wildfire in Colorado was Enabled by Climate Change
January 04, 2022
During the last few months, the region received lack of snow and precipitation, which caused the ground to be dry and flammable as a result of warmer than usual temperatures.
Historically, wildfires do not happen in areas like Boulder County as the area is usually moist from snow during winter months. However, Colorado has been enduring extreme drought since July through December last year. Denver, Colorado, typically experiences approximately 30 inches of snow from September till December. Last year, however, Colorado only had about 1 inch of snow on the days prior to the fire. The fall season leading up to winter was unusually warm and it created the right condition for the wildfire. Wildfire experts warned also warned that fires like the one last week in Boulder County, Colorado, may occur more frequently in the future.
Keith Musselman, a snow hydrologist and assistant research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said “Everything is kind of crispy. In addition to the extreme drought, just 1 or 2 degree warmer days can really dry out the landscape quite a bit more, so everything is that much drier and flammable.”
The wind speed of up to 105 miles per hour blasted the fire, swiftly destroying around 500 to 1000 homes which gave very little time for the residents to escape safely. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and Nature Conservancy nonprofit, expresses that even though the wind speeds were rare during this period of the year, they cannot be directly linked to climate change. On the contrary, he said that climate change was reason behind the warmer grounds and high speed winds which enabled the wildfire. Additionally, he said that climate change is setting the right condition for fire-prone regions across the world.
Philip Higuera, a fire ecology professor at the University of Montana, said that the Colorado fire were unusual, apart from the period of the year, as it blazed through densely populated neighborhood with many structures. He added that, at this point, we can only hope that the fire was induced by human ignition in the wrong place.
To address the problem, the experts say that we need to have more discussions and conversations for the short term and long term. The experts also warned that we should not assume that certain areas are not susceptible to fires.
Higuera, said “We as a society need to recognise that wherever we’re living in the West with vegetation is a fire-prone environment. This can happen anywhere.” He added that, we may alter the way our homes are built to make them more fire-proof and tweak the power lines to output less power or shut down during adverse events.
While the officials initially suspected that a fallen power line was the cause of the Colorado fire, they ruled it out after primary investigation and the investigations are still ongoing.
Swain, said that winter will not be a high fire events although we can expect fires to be common adverse event throughout the year. He affirms that winter will not be a peak fire season in the West. However, he expresses that winter used to be a non-fire season and it may not be the same anymore.