Heatwaves enable wildfire activity in the western United States.

Dmitri A Kalashnikov, John T Abatzoglou, Emily L Williams, Cong Yin, Madhulika Gurazada, Mukesh Kumar, Ashwin P Thomas, Precious E Ebiendele

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Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Dmitri A KalashnikovSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2777-4909

John T AbatzoglouSchool of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7599-9750

Emily L WilliamsSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7261-3071

Cong YinSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0009-0003-8618-9659

Madhulika GurazadaSchool of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0009-0000-4215-4583

Mukesh KumarSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4028-9497

Ashwin P ThomasSchool of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9484-4241

Precious E EbiendeleSchool of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1198-8726

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

While overall impacts of heatwaves have been extensively studied, the connection between heatwaves and wildfire activity remains relatively underexplored. We analyze links between heatwaves and both wildfire occurrence and growth across the western United States (WUS) and find that 42% of burned area during 2001-2024 occurred during and immediately following heatwaves. Heatwaves facilitate significant increases in daily burned area through meteorological and fuel flammability conditions that promote new ignitions and exacerbate ongoing fire activity, with effects persisting post-heatwave in most regions. In addition, heatwaves co-occur with increased cloud-to-ground lightning that can potentially increase ignitions. Last, we observe a 2.5-fold increase in burned area in WUS forests since 2001, with ~64% of this increase coinciding with heatwaves, but without corresponding increases in nonforests. The growing influence of heatwaves in shaping burned area in WUS forests has important implications for fire management and public health and can improve predictions of wildfire risk.

Identifiers

PMID42308305

DOI10.1126/sciadv.aea1277

PMCPMC13274587

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.