Already, 2022 is taking its place in a pantheon of years that have seen the nature of fire change — and all parts of the world fall under threat. It’s only expected to get worse, with drought and heat waves looming over the horizon for many parts of the globe.
At the epicenter of the fury will be the U.S. West, where the decadeslong megadrought has led to an "aridification,” according to Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. So far this year, more than 24,000 fires have burned across the U.S., the highest in at least 10 years, National Interagency Fire Center data show.
That includes a fast-moving wildfire that ripped through a town in California’s Orange County in the past week, spurring nearly 1,000 evacuations and destroying homes in the wealthy enclave. In Colorado Springs, blazes killed a woman at a mobile-home park Thursday and forced the city’s airport to briefly close. On Friday, crews battled huge flames in Michigan.