Hydroclimate and Wildfire in the Western US
Rainfall extremes and wildfire impacts in the western US are becoming increasingly prevalent in popular discourse. In this course we will draw on a variety of resources, including scientific papers, paleoclimate proxy data, long-form journalism, and indigenous knowledge to explore the climate history of the western US, with a focus on variability in the hydrologic cycle and wildfire patterns over the last ~20,000 years. We will discuss how climate change and other anthropogenic factors like water infrastructure and land management practices, interface with these natural systems and will situate the current hydroclimate/wildfire paradigm of the western US in the broader geologic context of the late Pleistocene and Holocene.