This
year, wildfires have already burned more than 3 million acres -- more than three
times the average at this time of year.
Many
scientists say that these fires fit exactly into the pattern predicted for
global warming and that it's likely to get, on average, even drier and hotter.
Over
the last month, ABC News has traveled through the San Bernardino Mountains,
Western Sierras, and Rockies to find out what scientists and firefighters make
of the new flames they must now face. The size and ferocity of these wildfires
plaguing the West right now -- many growing in size every hour -- astonishes
even experienced fire chiefs like Mat Fratus of the San Bernardino City Fire
Department.
"I
had talked to people who had been in the fire service their entire career, and
not only this fire, but fires in preceding years, because of the drought,
because of the fuel conditions, they produced fire behavior, flame links,
intensities that we had never really experienced before," Fratus said."And everything we had to throw at it, we did. And it just seemed to
burn right through us," Fratus said.
The
damage the fires have caused in
San Bernardino
has been difficult for Fratus, whose family has lived in the area for five
generations.
"I
was born and raised in this area, and to see this entire area burn in my -- in
my lifetime -- I've never seen a fire come through here of anything of that
magnitude," he said.
Today's
wildfires are part of a worsening pattern most everywhere.
Since
1970, the number of major wildfires has soared not only in
North America
but around the world.
Scientists
report that global warming means mountains lose winter snowpack weeks ahead of
time, from the
Himalayas
to California Sierras.
"The
snow is melting earlier in the year at very regular intervals now, and we're
getting much longer fire seasons. It dries out much more than before," said
Anthony Westerling, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The
economic cost of these new fires is many billions of dollars. No one knows
exactly how much, except that the rapid new development seems bound to make it
much worse.
