(PINPOINT WEATHER) — When looking into the Earth’s warming climate, it is often tied to the increase in billion-dollar natural disasters.
Climate change does not necessarily create severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires. However, it does play a role in how strong these phenomena get and how many of them we see.
Please review the research above from Climate Central. During the late 1900s and early 2000s, the U.S. would experience about 5-10 billion-dollar disasters per year.
However, the latest spike in our global temperatures has also led to a sharp increase in billion-dollar disasters as well.
More hurricanes, a more active severe weather season, and an increase in wildfires all contributed to the constant warming of our planet.
We have seen an increase in fires across the country, including here locally. The fires are larger and more violent because of an increase in fire weather days. Fire weather days are considered hot, dry, and windy days.
Around Los Angeles, they are averaging around 3 more fire weather days per year. 3 days does not seem like a lot, however, that allows 72 more hours for a fire to form or rapidly spread.
Looking at data from the North Carolina Forest Service, we have seen an increase in fires in the Tar Heel state as well, particularly over the last 5 years.
In a five-year span from 2016-2020, North Carolina saw roughly 18,000 fires.
In one less year, from 2021-2024, we have seen roughly 20,000 fires in North Carolina.
