https://phys.org/news/2018-10-narrow-focus-wildfire-trends-underestimates.html

While the authors acknowledge the well-documented risk that wildfires pose to homes and structures, particularly those built in the wildland-urban interface, they highlight the less appreciated and underestimated risk that uncontrollable, high severity wildfires pose for water security. Further, they suggest that focusing on the amount of area burned is not enough to understand these complex issues.

"The annual amount of area burning can be informative for demonstrating that wildfires are on the rise with climate change, but alone, this metric is insufficient. If we hope to better predict the future risks wildfires pose to water resources and more effectively manage our ecosystems, then it is critical we give other wildfire attributes, specifically burn severity, more consideration." said Brendan Murphy, lead author and postdoctoral fellow in Watershed Science at USU.