What's behind the extreme fire danger in Western states?
Mike Szydlowski  Special to Columbia Daily Tribune  The Western United States is baking this summer with above-normal temperatures combined with less snow this past winter and a drier than normal spring and summer so far. All of this points to a potentially dangerous and early start to the fire season out West. Lets take a look at some of the factors and how they play into the making of such a dangerous situation. Excessive heat  Warm air can hold more moisture than cool air. The warmer the air is, the more moisture it can hold. The only place to get this added moisture is to pull it from the surface  the soil, plants, lakes, etc. Warm air alone does not always mean fire danger, though. For example, temperatures are often quite steamy on the Gulf Coast but there is no danger of large wildfires as there is so much moisture all around. In the South, warm temperatures typically add even more moisture to the air, as the lakes and ocean evaporate more water into the air when the waters are warmer. However, many places in the West do not have huge amounts of surface water to pull from. The dry air will still try to pull moisture from wherever it can, so it starts to pull it from the plants and the soil. As the soil dries out, the plants cant replace the lost moisture. This dries the plants out, making them easier to burn. When dried-out plants burn, the fire is faster and hotter. This is exactly what is setting up across the entire Western U.S. this year. Loss of snowpack  Some parts of the West also received less snow this winter, and then the excessive heat melted that snow much faster than normal. This is a much bigger issue than most people realize. Many areas of the West do not get very much rain in the summer. The water they need comes from the slow-melting snow in the higher elevations. The huge snows from a typical winter and the normally cool temperatures of the higher elevations allows the snow to melt slowly most of the summer and provides surrounding communities with the water they need. This summer is different. The excessive heat came early, stayed and started melting the snow very fast. Instead of the melting snow steadily feeding rivers, streams and lakes all summer long, the water started to come down all at once. This caused too much water early, but now too little water for the rest of the summer. Mountain areas that typically see a deep snowpack through July have lost most of that snowpack in June. As a result, lake and river levels are already falling fast. Long-term drought  As if the current conditions were not enough, much of the Western U.S. has been in a 10-15 year drought. They still get rain and snow, but much less than they used to. This has caused the groundwater levels to drop significantly and, as a result, some communities are running out of drinking water. This is happening to more communities every year. Cause and solution  Climate change is the cause! Atmospheric and climate scientists have done countless studies on the worsening problems out West, have found that changes in climate are making these conditions the new normal and they are very worried. Its not just that forests are burning far faster than should naturally occur. As great a  if not greater  concern is that, for more than a decade, the West has grown drier and drier while just as many people (more actually) are still depending on that water to live their lives. As for solutions, thats a tough one. Humans cant just fix this problem immediately. The conditions leading to the more rapid climate changes are here and, while we can try to keep them from getting worse, it will take some time to actually improve the conditions. However, we have to start somewhere and now is better than later. In the meantime, communities need to find ways to make the water they do have last longer for everyone. Mike Szydlowski is science coordinator for Columbia Public Schools. LAST WEEKS POP QUIZ ANSWERS  1. Over millions of years, salt from the rocks on the Earths surface weathered away and was carried to the ocean. 2. Trick question. Lakes and rivers do have salt in them, but in much lower concentrations compared to oceans. 3. Some parts of the Earth would get much warmer and some parts would get much cooler. 4. Europe would become significantly cooler if the ocean current stopped transporting heat. 5. Scientists are not yet certain on the cause yet.