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September 23, 2012--Climate Central reveals telling study of climate change & wildfire (Summit Daily)

A new analysis on western wildfires by Climate Central released Sept. 18 found that blazes seen this summer are now seven times more likely to occur than they were 70 years ago because of a continued warming trend, researchers say. Though devastating blazes that affected many parts of the state this summer are linked to a streak of hot weather, it's more difficult to link them definitively to global warming. Assembling 40 years of fire data from the U.S. Forest Service, the study found fires larger than 1,000 acres burned twice as often each year in the past decade than in an average year in the 1970s. “Our analysis of fires on U.S. Forest Service land documents a clear, long-term trend toward more frequent and larger fires in the American West,” said Alyson Kenward, principle author from the Climate Central.

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