Last week, wildfires roared across parts of Maui, decimating communities like Lahaina, which made it one of the deadliest wildfires in the United States in the past 100 years.

While the exact cause of the fires is still unknown, the National Weather service issued a Fire Weather Warning on Tuesday morning due to parts of the island being in a drought and a High Wind Warning with winds over 60 mph. Winds were so high due to the category 4 Hurricane Dora to the south and high pressure just north of the islands, commonly known as the North Pacific High.

These conditions were the perfect breeding ground for fires to spread very quickly and that’s exactly what happened last week.

While climate change can’t be the exact reason why the fires have happened, it is one of the reasons why widespread fires will be more common in the future. Climate change, which has been driven by fossil fuel usage, can affect droughts by making them more frequent and stronger when they do occur.