The fires in Hawaii would be shocking anywhere — killing at least 93 people in one of the deadliest wildfires in the United States in modern history. But the devastation is especially striking because of where it happened: in a state defined by its lush vegetation, a far cry from the dry landscape normally associated with fire threats.
The explanation is as straightforward as it is sobering: As the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters.
The story of the recent blazes arguably began decades ago, when Hawaii started experiencing a long-term decline in average annual rainfall. Since 1990, rainfall at selected monitoring sites has been 31% lower in the wet season and 6% lower in the dry season, according to work published in 2015 by researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Colorado.