A study from the U.S. Geological Survey found the ecosystems on California's public lands are losing the carbon they've locked up from the atmosphere faster than any other state, driven in large part by wildfires.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Human-caused climate change increased the likelihood and intensity of the hot, dry and windy conditions that fanned the flames of the recent devastating Southern California wildfires, a scientific study found.

As Southern California gets some much-needed rain, a new analysis suggests the conditions that led to January's wildfires were 35 per cent more likely because of human-fuelled climate change. And the more likely those fires become,