Climate change will burn Yosemite
Scientists unravel how warming temperatures will trigger more wild fires in California’s Yosemite National Park. 
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Wild fires within California’s world famous Yosemite National Park are set to become more frequent and severe due to climate change. New research has unpicked how this may happen; and it is not just that warming temperatures directly trigger more fires. They will also reduce the amount of snow that covers the forest in winter. That lack of snow will then allow lightning strikes to trigger more fires, which burn more intensely. “People already expect more ignitions from hotter summers,” says Dr James Lutz of the University of Washington at Seattle, US, one of the study’s authors. That is because predicted higher temperatures will make vegetation more flammable and allow larger fires to take hold. “But this research suggests that declines in snowpack will have an additional effect,” says Dr Lutz. He and his colleagues spell out exactly how in the International Journal of Wildland Fire. …
