Wildfires Are Burning Across the Nation
Wildfires Are Burning Across the Nation
More than two dozen wildfires are burning across the American south-west as the region’s summers continue getting hotter and drier, laying bare the intensifying consequences of climate change.
A continued drought this summer has made the south-west a tinderbox, with over a quarter-million acres burning in the Four Corners states alone, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Six major fires in Colorado have burnt nearly 200,000 acres as of Tuesday afternoon.
In Arizona, 16 blazes are affecting nearly 100,000 acres, including two major fires near the historic mining and tourism town of Globe that have forced evacuations.
Five fires have spread across more than 9,000 acres of Utah lands.
And in New Mexico, more than 4,400 acres are ablaze from four fires. The largest of them, the Medio fire, started in a national forest near Santa Fe and has threatened homes on the city’s outskirts.
The fires, plus the mega-fires burning on the west coast, are making for poor air quality across the south-west, according to AirNow. Monitoring stations in many cities show high enough pollution levels to cause health risks for certain at-risk people.
