September 27, 2021
Assistant Professor of Geography, Environment and Planning, Dr. José Hernandez Ayala and SSU students Jenna Mann and Elisabeth Grosvenor published a study in the journal Earth & Space Science that focused on understanding the relationship between antecedent rainfall, excessive vegetation growth, and wildfires in California. The project was funded by an RSCAP Mini-grant from Sonoma State University. The main findings of the study are:
- Antecedent rainfall and vegetation growth exhibit more positive correlations with wildfire burned areas across California in most of the years in the 2001-2020 period
- The active wildfire seasons of 2003, 2008, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020 in California were generally preceded by above average precipitation and anomalous vegetation growth
- The largest wildfires in California history show a strong positive correlation between above average rainfall and anomalous vegetation growth
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