Is Global Warming Fueling Colorado Wildfires?

[JMH]

Devastating wildfires scorching the state of Colorado are linked to a nasty streak of hot weather across the central part of the country, but it's tougher to link them definitively to global warming, climatologists say.

Earlier research has found broad trends linking earlier spring weather, rising temperatures and increased forest fires, suggesting that climate change may play a role in fires like the Waldo Canyon blaze outside of Colorado Springs, which has burned more than 18,000 acres and consumed about 300 homes here. But linking a specific fire to the long-term trend of global warming isn't possible.

http://www.livescience.com/21249-global-warming-colorado-wildfires.html

 

[JMH]

Heat wave fuels wildfires.....

On June 28, 2012, wildfires raged across the western United States. The Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado attracted the most attention after spreading into Colorado Springs and charring hundreds of homes, but large wildfires also burned throughout Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona.

A lack of winter snow cover and ongoing drought primed vegetation in these states for ignition. But in recent weeks, another ingredient for extreme wildfire emerged: heat. High temperatures dry out vegetation and decrease the relative humidity, making it easier for fires to ignite and spread.


The intensity and scope of the heat wave in the western United States is visible in this map of land surface temperature anomalies for June 17–24, 2012. Based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, the map depicts temperatures compared to the 2000–2011 average for the same eight day period in June.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78394&src=fb

 

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How Bad Are the Colorado Wildfires?

The Waldo Canyon Fire has been declared the worst in Colorado state history. With its flames still raging out of control, it has destroyed 346 homes in Colorado Springs, killed at least one person and burned an estimated 18,500 acres of land thus far.

http://www.livescience.com/21297-worst-wildfires-history-waldo-canyon.html