The current heatwave broiling Californians like no event in decades is also elevating the risk for another potential disaster in the weeks ahead: wildfires.

While heat and dry conditions have contributed to the Lake and Ranch fires burning now in Los Angeles County, fear of larger blazes looms in the weeks ahead. As a result of climate change, California sees more than twice as many fall days with “fire weather” as it did a generation ago. The current heatwave raises the odds of “wildfires later in 2020, that’s for sure,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“At this point, it’s certainly clear climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency everywhere,” Swain says of the heat conditions across California and beyond. “Even in very different kinds of geographies and climates.” The blackouts rolling across the state over the weekend would be far less likely if temperature remained just a few degrees lower and people in the regions leaned less on air conditioning.

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