By Elvia Limón, Laura Blasey, and Amy Hubbard, LA Times

A burn scar in Northern California offers an unsettling glimpse into what forests across the Sierra Nevada could become. Bare tree carcasses are strewn across the dun-colored hills. Rock outcroppings jut out like bones.

Two massive wildfires have torn through here over the last 15 years. It’s a pattern that threatens to repeat across California’s most extensive and iconic mountain range as wildfires have increased in both size and severity over the last two decades.

About 1.5 million acres of the Sierra Nevada burned last fire season. That surpassed 2020. A study by researchers at UC Irvine and UC Davis found that solely considering rising summer temperatures, the acreage burned will increase by up to 92% by the 2040s.

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