How climate change turned lush Hawaii into a tinderbox

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Hawaii would be shocking anywhere — killing at least 36 people, in one of the deadliest wildfires in the United States in modern history. But the devastation is especially striking because of where it happened: in a state defined by its lush vegetation, a far cry from the dry landscape normally associated with fire threats. The explanation is as straightforward as it is sobering: As the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters.

The story of this week's blaze arguably began decades ago, when Hawaii started experiencing a long-term decline in average annual rainfall. Since 1990, rainfall at selected monitoring sites has been 31% lower in the wet season and 6% lower in the dry season, according to work published in 2015 by researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Colorado. There are multiple reasons for that change, according to Abby Frazier, a climatologist at Clark University who has researched Hawaii.

One factor is La Nina, a weather pattern that has usually led to significant rainfall but began delivering less precipitation beginning in the 1980s. Those weaker La Ninas «are not bringing us out of drought,» Frazier said in an interview earlier this year. Another change: As temperatures increase, the clouds over Hawaii are thinner, Frazier said.

And less cloud cover means less precipitation. On top of that, big storms have been moving north over time — delivering less of the rainfall that they typically bring to the islands. All three changes are probably related to rising temperatures, Frazier said.