Historically dry conditions and drought in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States are a key factor in the string of fires the region has faced in recent weeks, with officials who issued red flag warnings over the Northeast.

on the west coast California is battling more wildfireswhere dry conditions and wind caused explosive fires that burned more than 200 homes and businesses.

Climate change can’t be said to have caused the fires, but the extreme conditions fueling the fires have strong links to the effects of climate change, according to David Robinson, New Jersey’s state climatologist at Rutgers University.

“Human-induced climate change underlies all of our day-to-day weather,” he said.

It was like the weather foundation was lifted, he said. “The atmosphere is warmer, the oceans are warmer,” he said. If a storm comes to trigger them, then you will have torrential rains. But if there’s no trigger, “you’ve still got heat rising, so it dries things out.”

Overall, the entire weather system is more energized, tilting toward the kinds of extreme variability seen now, Robinson said.

“Historic drought, intensified by stronger winds and low relative humidity, continues to fuel wildfires in New Jersey and other northeastern states in November — a time not typically associated with such events,” Firas Saleh, director of North American fire models at Moody’s Ratings. , a financial and business analytics company, said in a statement.

“The fires affecting New Jersey serve as an important reminder that fire risk is not limited to the western states. This situation highlights the critical importance of preparedness and reminds us that climate risks know no geographical boundaries,” he said.

Northeast fires explode

Last month was the second warmest October on record in his 130 years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration he kept records. National precipitation was 1.2 inches below average, making October 1963 the second driest on record.

In New Jersey, a small amount of rain earlier this week “was just a band-aid,” Robinson said. “Several of our towns that have records going back to the 1870s have gone 42 days without measurable rain.”

“This is absolutely why we have fires in New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic,” he said. “There is a lot of fuel, most of the leaves have fallen and the forests are dry.”

In New York and New Jersey, the Jennings Creek fire extended into its sixth day on Wednesdayburning over 3,500 acres.

The fire in California is burning more than 215 buildings

Southern California had to deal the fierce fire of the Mountain from November 6. So far it has destroyed 216 structures and covers 20,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Wind drops allowed firefighters to largely contain it, officials said Wednesday.

The fire’s behavior was partly due to California not being in a drought after several years of extremely dry temperatures, experts said. But that, in turn, led to its own problems.

Wet years form what firefighters call “herbaceous fuels,” meaning fast-growing grasses, brush, and chaparral. In some places, fuel loads were 50 to 100 percent above normal because of the previous winter’s rains. When things dry up, the whole state can become a box.

“When we dry fuel with a record heat wave for seven to 10 days, like we just experienced, that’s a recipe for pretty extreme fire behavior, and that’s when the winds came,” said Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“These fires just started like gang triggers,” he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The effects of drought, heat and climate change are helping to fuel US wildfires