Study finds climate change set the stage for devastating wildfires in Argentina and Chile

By Isabel Debre
Associated Press in The Canadian Press
February 11, 2026
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning up to three times more likely than in a world without global warming, a team of researchers warned on Wednesday. The hot, dry and gusty weather that fed last month’s deadly wildfires in central and southern Chile was made around 200% more likely by human-made greenhouse gas emissions while the high-fire-risk conditions that fueled the blazes still racing through southern Argentina were made 150% more likely, according to World Weather Attribution, a scientific initiative that investigates extreme weather events soon after they happen. That probability will only increase, the experts added, as humans continue to blanket the planet with heat-trapping gases.

Related coverage in Gizmodo, by Ellen Lapointe: As Patagonia Burns, the World May Lose Some of its Most Ancient Trees

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