Diary of the Last Age -- Wildfires

I remember as a young man reading about forest fires in the Northwest consuming whole forests at the turn of the last century, hundreds of thousands of acres, jumping mighty rivers and lakes.  Forest fires are a natural part of the forest life and the West has experienced many truly large ones.  It is this history that makes some people skeptical about whether the wildfires the West is currently experiencing is any indication of global warming.  There is one piece of evidence, though, that might support a global warming explanation,

Dennis Mathisen, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the LA Times that “we’re seeing fire behavior we wouldn’t normally see until September.”
That is it, wildfires happening in July.  There is something accelerating the process and global warming is the likely explanation.

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