Daniel Swain for International Fire & Safety Journal — Wildfires in North America generate thunderstorms as climate change worsens

UCLA climate expert Daniel Swain discusses the increasing occurrence of wildfire-generated thunderstorms for International Fire & Safety Journal, highlighting the role of climate change in exacerbating these events. Swain shares how wildfires in northern California and Jasper, Canada, have produced pyrocumulonimbus clouds, leading to lightning that has sparked additional fires. “We’ve seen a lot of fires behave like these ones in recent years, which I don’t think is reassuring at all,” Swain noted. He emphasized that climate change has made conditions more conducive to intense, fast-moving wildfires by creating drier fuels, contributing to more extreme fire behavior.