Wildfires Followed by Severe Rain Will Become More Common

Extreme cold, heat, rain, and fire tend to be the worst parts of the weather due to climate change. Warming atmosphere increases the likelihood of a fire in the Western U.S. There is a risk of flash floods and slides.

It's a lot more vulnerable after a wildfire because you kill off all the vegetation and there's no root structures to hold the soil in place.

The fires aren't causing the storms, but the same rising temperatures that cause fires to become more severe allow the atmosphere to carry more water, which causes rain events to dump more water quickly. Stevenson says they're talking about super strong rainstorms.