Right around Labor Day, dozens of wildfires burned across California after a remarkable outbreak of dry lightning, and a new study warns that lightning sparked fires could become more common in the western United States in the coming decades.

Most wildfires are caused by people, but some of the state's largest and longest lasting fires were sparked by lightning, accounting for about a third of the burned area in California since the 1990s.

Five years ago, lightning sparked what became the August Complex fire.

It was California's biggest wildfire on record, and went on to kill a firefighter and burn more than a million acres of the state.

UC Merced climatologist John Abatzoglou says these wild card lightning sparked fires can be the dominant driver behind how much of the West burns.

The analysis he worked on with post-doctoral researcher Dmitri Kalashnikov projects that from 2030 to 2060, some Western states could see up to 12 more days of lightning striking the ground each year, even when there's not a dramatic upswing projected in lightning like in the southwestern U.S.. Climate change is already driving hotter, drier conditions, so a bolt of lightning in the future is more likely to strike when parched lands are primed to burn.

This new study backs up earlier predictions that climate change could spur more lightning strikes.

Fires started by lightning aren't inherently bad.

Zeke Lunder, who's a geographer specializing in wildfires who runs a blog called The Lookout, says that under the right conditions and in the right places, lightning fires can act like prescribed burns and clear away fuels.

The problem is when lightning strikes ignite dozens of fires all at once, the state is taking steps to better detect fires, even unpredictable and sneaky ones sparked by lightning.

Two years ago, Cal Fire partnered with a public safety program at UC San Diego called Alert California, which uses a network of more than 1100 cameras and artificial intelligence to alert firefighters about potential fires.

For Calmatters, I'm Rachel Becker.