"Climate change caused the increase in size of wildfires occurring across California in the last 50 years, according to a new study published in this week's journal Earth's Future.

Since the early 1970s, California wildfires have increased in size by eight times, the study says, and the annual burned area has grown by nearly 500%.

"Human-caused warming has already significantly enhanced wildfire activity in California, particularly in the forests of the Sierra Nevada and North Coast, and will likely continue to do so in the coming decades," the authors of the paper wrote.

Last year, for example, the Camp Fire claimed 85 lives in California, making it the deadliest in state history."

Jordan Evans and Brandon Miller report for CNN July 17, 2019. [2]