The World Has Been On Fire For the Past Month. Here ’s What It Looks Like

Flames light up hillsides in British Columbia. Smoke swells over highways into Athens. A swimming pool in California is surrounded by charred rubble. Thick forests in Siberia lie shriveled and brown. Countries across the northern hemisphere this summer are experiencing the worst wildfires in years of recorded history, with large swaths of land and entire towns in Europe, North America and Russia consumed by flames since the start of July. Though many of these countries are used to summer fire seasons, climate change is making the hot, dry conditions that allow fires to catch and spread more common and more intense. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In parts of the western U.S., a summer of intense heat waves has arrived on the back of a weak rainy season, as a two-year-long drought stretches on. In mid-July, fires broke out in parts of Oregon and California, together consuming more than 230,000 hectares, part of a nationwide toll of over 1 million hectares burned so far in wildfires this year. Yasin Akgul—AFP/Getty ImagesFirefighters battle a wildfire in Mugla, Marmaris district, Turkey, on Aug. 2. Turkey’s struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades come as a blistering heatwave grips southeastern Europe. Dimitar Dilkoff—AFP/Getty ImagesA couple rides a pedal boat as smoke from nearby forest fires hangs over the city of Yakutsk, in Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on July 27. David Ryder—ReutersFire retardant dropped from an airplane fal...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change healthscienceclimate Source Type: news