Climate change raises concerns of more deadly wildfires in Chile: report
A recent report suggests that deadly wildfires, similar to the ones in central Chile that claimed at least 133 lives this month, could become more common in the country due to climate change, making the world hotter and drier.
These fires mark Chile’s deadliest natural disaster since a 2010 earthquake, which killed about 500 people.
Strong winds and high temperatures fueled the rapid spread of the blazes into populated areas near Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.
The report by World Weather Attribution, a team of global scientists studying climate change’s impact on extreme weather, examined factors that fuel fires: temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric moisture, using the Hot Dry Windy Index (HDWI).
Surprisingly, neither global warming nor the El Niño climate phenomenon caused the recent rise in HDWI during the Chilean fires. In fact, while inland temperatures are rising, the coastal region of Chile is cooling.
Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and co-author of the study, told reporters, “We expect a lot of these fires to happen in the future.”
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