U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)

Arid and semi-arid areas may face especially high risks of extreme heat and fire.The laws of thermodynamics dictate that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, but new research has found that atmospheric moisture has not increased as expected over arid and semi-arid regions of the world as the climate has warmed.The findings are particularly puzzling because climate models have been

Key Points Fires are burning higher in elevation, increasing the geographical overlap between burned areas and seasonal snow zones (areas with persistent snowpack throughout the winter season). We found a 10-fold increase in fire in California's seasonal snow zones in 2020–2021 versus 2001–2019. Wildfires accelerate snowmelt resulting in earlier snow disappearance come spring