The start of California's fire season has moved up 6 weeks since 1990 thanks to climate change

You are not imagining it. Fire season in California is indeed starting earlier and lasting longer in virtually every region of California than it did two decades ago, researchers have found, thanks largely to human-caused climate change.

In the Sierra Nevada, fire season starts about 24 days earlier than it did in the early 1990s. In the Northern Basin and Range region, which runs along the northernmost border with Nevada, it’s 31 days earlier.

And in the Cascade Range, which runs into Oregon, fire season now begins 46 days earlier than it once did, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

“Anecdotally, those of us living here have this sense that it’s been happening sooner,” said Amanda Fencl, a Berkeley-based water specialist who directs climate