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.

Tuesday's report, too rapid for peer-review yet, found global warming boosted the likelihood of high fire weather conditions in this month's fires by 35 percent and its intensity by 6 percent.

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,