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The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since a peak in the 1970s.
However, there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.
Greg Mullins, a former fire and rescue commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales, told AFP this fire as well as the recent ones in Los Angeles were “highly unusual” because they took place in the cooler winter months.
“In both cases the fires were preceded by hot summers, which increased evaporation and drying of vegetation, followed by large rainfall deficits that parched the landscape,” he said.
“This is a common by-product of climate change,” said Mullins, a founder of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group.
