Climate Change Fuels the Perfect Firestorm
During 2002 and 2003, wildfires burned nearly 11 million acres and killed more than 50 firefighters. Four states — Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, and California — experienced the largest fires to date during those years. Those massive fire seasons were the culmination of a trend: between 1986 and 2003, western forests saw a nearly fourfold increase in the number of wildfires, and those fires burned six times the amount of land and lasted five times as long when compared with the previous 16 years. This year has already surpassed the record breakers of 2002 and 2003, in part because it had a head start -- the worst parts of Colorado’s fire season usually hit in early or late summer, but this year a wildfire overran firefighters before spring even arrived, and another early blaze killed three people and destroyed 23 homes.
