Ron is once again wrong. Heatwaves are increasing in many parts of the world, Atlantic hurricane activity has seen a significant increase in recent decades, and there is too much scientific literature to cite indicating climate change has exacerbated wildfires:
According to the scientific literature cited in this thread Atlantic hurricane activity has seen a significant increase in recent decades:
- Significant increases in the strongest hurricanes have occurred in the North Atlantic (Kossin et al. 2013)
- A more recent study shows 95th percentile/24-h hurricane intensity significantly increased in the central and eastern tropical Atlantic basin (Balaguru et al, 2018)
- Intensity uncertainty is very low for the North Atlantic indicating the proportion of the highest hurricane intensity significantly increased in the Atlantic (Bhatia et al. 2019)
- Hurricane intensity also increased significantly in the West Pacific (Mei et al, 2016)
It is a fact, and contrary to Ron's original misrepresentation, that heatwaves are increasing in many parts of the world:
Per the previous discussion, heatwaves are increasing in many parts of the world, like Australia, Europe and Asia, where historic data is available. In other parts of the world reliable historic data is unavailable and so it's hard to say with confidence whether Heatwaves are increasing in those regions too.
Climate is just one of the many factors influencing wildfire risk, but the right climatic conditions enable fires to take hold and spread quickly. In many cases it’s not so much the number of fires that increases in a high fire year but the severity and size of the burn area resulting from fires once started. So, no, it's not hard to say global warming has exacerbated wildfires:
- According to NASA the wildfire season has lengthened across a quarter of the world's vegetated surface.
- Despite the increase in fire prevention and suppression efforts during the last decades, the number of fires has continued to grow markedly. This process is seen in various parts of the European continent and the former Soviet Union (Martínez-Ruiz, 1994) (Martín 1998) (Moreno 1998).
- An increase in the maximum temperature when a wildfire occurs is associated with an increase in wildfire size, holding all other factors constant (Wood 2017).
- Since the beginning of the twenty-first century California, USA, has experienced a substantial increase in the frequency of large wildfires (Keely 2019).
- Under changing climate conditions, studies show that in Southern Europe summer drought conditions and high temperatures are the primary drivers of the size and variability of fires (Hessl 2011) (Turco 2012) (Ruffault 2016) (Amatulli 2009).
- The Northern Rockies have experienced a pronounced increase in area burned in recent decades, a trend strongly linked to warming temperatures and ultimately a longer potential fire season (Higuera 2015).