U.S. Forest Fires Are Likely to Get Yet More Frequent and Nightmarish

Of all the threats the earth's changing climate poses for the American West, perhaps none is graver than an onslaught of hot weather. A predicted pattern of long-term baking is not just dreadful news to farmers struggling with the ongoing drought, but could also set the stage for decades of frequent and more-devastating wildfires.

There's a couple of reasons for that. Hotter and drier conditions turn forests into vast reservoirs of tinder, just waiting for lightning or a careless human to set them alight. And when desiccated vegetation builds to a certain mass, it becomes hard for humans to plan for its eventual flare-up. This danger is underscored in the new U.S. National Climate Assessment, which includes this warning: "Given strong relationships between climate and fire, even when modified by land use and management, such as fuel treatments, projected climate changes suggest that western forests in the U.S. will be increasingly affected by large and intense fires that occur more frequently."