Climate change leads to devastating global wildfires

Wildfires are currently raging across North and South America, but this year wildfires globally has potentially seen a record-breaking scale of fires. ITV's GMB Meteorologist, Laura Tobin, explains more.

Last year wildifres destroyed parts of Australia and this year the extent of the fires in the Amazon, California and Arctic Circle have been devistating. By May this year, the number of wildfires recorded in South Ameria was already higher than any previous year since monitoring began in 2008.

Wildfires are more severe during long periods of hot dry weather. Higher temperatures lead to more evaporation, drying out the vegetation creating fuel for the fires. More fuel leads to more fires, which in turn leads to more Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere causing the planet to warm and thus resulting in longer periods of hot dry weather. This is positive fedback.

So, as the world warms, we expect more wildfires, that will further warm the climate.