Wildfires today threaten more of the world's forested areas, and for a longer period of time each year, than they have in more than three decades, according to a new study that blames climate-driven changes like rising global temperatures and worsening droughts.

Released July 14 in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the found that wildfire seasons worldwide are nearly 20 percent longer today than they were 35 years ago, having lengthened across more than 25 percent of the Earth's forested surface, on every continent except Australia.

Areas with significant trends in fire weather season length, from 1979 through 2013.

(Nature Communications)

“Conditions across the U.S. are becoming more conducive to fires,” , the study's lead author and an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, said in an interview with ClimateWire. “We may be moving into a new normal. If these trends persist, we are on track to see .”

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The study, conducted by scientists from the U.S. Forest Service, South Dakota State University, the Desert Research Institute and Australia's University of Tasmania, looked at both global climate data and fire danger indices from five continents, from 1979 through 2013. By pairing these data sets, the researchers were able to derive fire weather season lengths.

"This metric was examined to identify global and regional patterns in fire weather season length changes as well as changes in the frequency of, and the area affected by, ," the researchers write in the study.

The trend in global fire weather season length, from 1979 through 2013.

(Nature Communications)

It's not just the length of the wildfire season that's worsening, the study found. "The amount of area each year that’s impacted by a season that’s longer than normal was also increasing,” Jolly said in an interview with the Washington Post. “So globally, each year we’re seeing more areas that are pushing into these .”

While the study doesn't suggest that the risk is leading directly to more fires, it says that the areas at risk have become larger and are still growing.

“This study adds to a growing body of knowledge about the increases in ,” Chris Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science, told ClimateWire.

“There are multiple factors that can cause wildfires," he added. "What the study shows is that weather opens the door to fire risk."

Read much more in the .

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Wildfires Rage in South Africa, March 2015

In this photo taken Monday, March 2, 2015, a helicopter dumps water on a fire in the Tokai Forest near Cape Town, South Africa. (AP Photo/Mark Wessels)