BOULDER, Colorado — Climate researchers agree that as the planet's climate warms, wildfires will become more extreme. But it's not just the size of the fires that concerns scientists – it's when they ignite.
Take for example, the East Troublesome Fire. It made history in October 2020, burning more than 170,000 acres in just three days in northern Colorado. However, it was far from the only wildfire. There were numerous fires on Oct. 22, 2020, that were burning at least 10,000 acres.
Seth McGinnis, an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, was part of a team of researchers who wanted to know whether years like 2020 will become more common in a warmer and drier climate.
"If we've got more fires happening simultaneously, that could lead to a point where we don't have enough resources to fight them," McGinnins said.
While other studies have focused on how climate change leads to more frequent and larger fires, McGinnis' team wanted to know how a changing climate will impact the number of fires burning at the same time.
Based on climate simulations, the team found that wildfire seasons in which multiple large fires burn simultaneously will happen twice as often as they do now, and even more frequently in some areas.
"In some regions, like the Northern Rockies region, conditions of more than 35 simultaneous wildfires, which is normally something you only see once every 10 years, might happen as often every two years," McGinnis said. "The projections are also that the fire season is going to get longer, so it will start a couple of weeks earlier and may end ... a few weeks later."
The study suggests that preventing those fires through increased forest management will be key.
"The big answer is: Always we should fund natural resource management better," McGinnis said.
And, everyone should all do their part, as well, McGinnis said.
"Anything you can do to help fight climate change is gonna help," he said.
The researchers' next study will focus on how things like home-hardening and creating defensible space will help reduce the number of seasons in which we have these large wildfires burning at the same time.
More 9NEWS stories by Keely Chalmers:
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Colorado Climate
9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.
To download 9NEWS+ on Roku search for KUSA.
To download 9NEWS+ on Fire TV search for 9NEWS.