Ambio http://doi.org/ctsn (2018)

Last year (2017) was an exceptionally high wildfire year globally, and 2018 is shaping up to be similarly severe. If the risks associated with wildfire are to be managed, the main factors that control fire dynamics must be clearly understood.

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Eddie Gerald/Alamy Stock Photo

To this end, David Bowman from The University of Tasmania, Australia, and co-workers investigated the drivers of the 2017 fires in Mediterranean Chile, which were particularly severe and may offer insights into fire dynamics in other Mediterranean regions. Using satellite (MODIS) data combined with climate and land-use records, they identify a number of factors that led to the exceptionally energetic fires of January 2017.

Extreme fire weather (a combination of high temperature, low relative humidity, wind and low 24-hour rainfall) was certainly a contributing factor. Land-cover change involving the conversion of native vegetation (now accounting for <20% of land area) and the expansion of flammable exotic species (which occupied 44% of the burned area) was also important. Climate and land-use trends are therefore converging to significantly increase risks of wildfire and smoke pollution in parts of Chile and similar Mediterranean regions.