Shaheer Ahmed
Maui’s destructive fires are caused by a sudden lack of rain, invasive plants, winds, a storm, and climate change.
In just a few weeks, Hawaii went from being green and wet to bone dry and more prone to fire. This is a critical factor in a dangerous mix of conditions that seem to have come together to make the wildfires in Hawaii so destructive.
Experts say that climate change is making these flash droughts and other unusual weather events like what’s happening on the island of Maui, where dozens of people have died and a famous tourist town has been destroyed, more likely.
Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s School of Forestry, said, “It’s leading to these unpredictable or unplanned combinations that we’re seeing right now and that is fueling this extreme fire weather.” “What these…catastrophic wildfire disasters show is that no place is safe from this problem,” says the author.
Flash droughts are so dry and hot that the air actually pulls water out of the ground and plants. This trend of getting hotter and drier often leads to wildfires. Two scientists told The Associated Press that what is going on in Hawaii is a textbook example.
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Elizabeth Pickett is the co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organisation, a nonprofit that works with towns all over Hawaii to avoid and control wildfires. Pickett said that flooded pineapples and sugar cane used to grow on huge swaths of land. When those businesses went out of business, the land was taken over by exotic, fire-prone grass species.
Meteorologists say that big changes in air pressure caused the extremely strong trade winds that spread the fires.
Trade winds are a common part of the weather in Hawaii. They happen when air moves from the North Pacific High, an area of high-pressure north of Hawaii, to the low-pressure area at the equator, south of the state.
