176k views
5 votes
Most fires in the Hudson Bay Area start because of a lightning strike. Why is it that the numbers of fires in that area might increase as the climate gets WARMER?

1 Answer

6 votes

As the climate gets warmer, mainly due to global warming, it increases the amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere. The water vapor is what creates the clouds, and it increases the amount of storms with lightining strike. It is calculated that an increase of one Celsus degree in temperature can lead to an increase the frequency of lightning strikes by 12% (data from California University, 2015).

User Arnaud Delubac
by
5.3k points