What's behind the heat wave in the American West?
Scientists say the wildfires that have erupted in recent days have been fed by the excessive heat across the region. Climate change contributes to the drought conditions and makes trees and shrubs more likely to catch fire. At least 14 new wildfires broke out this week in Montana and Wyoming as the record heat sparked an early start to the fire season. Firefighters also battled blazes in Arizona and New Mexico. "From a fire potential standpoint, what is capable this year, it is certainly much more severe than we've seen in the past," U.S. Department of Agriculture fire meteorologist Gina Palma said in a climate briefing Thursday. Palma said the drought-related fire risks were especially pronounced in higher elevations across much of the U.S. West, from the Rocky Mountains down into the Southwest and parts of California. "You will be seeing very extreme fire behavior, certainly conditions that we would not normally see in June," she said. A growing number of scientific studies are concluding that heat waves in some cases can be directly attributed to climate change, said Kristie L. Ebi, a professor at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.