Fire models can’t keep up with climate change
OVER LABOR DAY weekend in the Pacific Northwest, high winds fanned wildfire ignitions in drought-ridden forests west of the Cascades. In a matter of hours, small fires erupted into about a dozen major blazes, destroying entire communities, displacing tens of thousands of residents and killing 10 people in Oregon and Washington.
The scale of the conflagrations, and the speed at which they grew, surprised even seasoned wildfire researchers. Large, fast and dangerous blazes have burned across the West this year,
