wildfire

So-called fire weather days, when temperatures and winds are high and humidity is low, have risen across the United States since 1973, especially in the American West.

As fire weather looms, a new report quantifies the rising number of 'fire weather days'

Murphy Woodhouse

A new report from Climate Central - based on 50 years of weather data across the country - finds that the number of hot, dry and windy fire weather days have increased, particularly in the American West.

Carmen Villaruel, a graduate student at the Colorado School of Mines, holds up one of the test tubes she is using for DNA analysis of soil that's been charred by wildfires. After it has been put in a centrifuge, the liquid and solid parts separate.

Regional 暗黑爆料

Colorado researchers examine how soil rebuilds itself after wildfires

Emma VandenEinde

As wildfire seasons stretch longer and fires burn hotter, researchers are digging into the resiliency of soil microbes critical to forest recovery.

As the Wildland Fire Division Chief for the City of Boulder Fire-Rescue, Brian Oliver oversees home assessments for fire risk. After the Marshall Fire, he says that call volume for this service sky-rocketed.

Environment

Clean your gutters, rake up your leaves: some household chores can also protect against fire

Leigh Paterson

While some fire-impacted communities in Northern Colorado rebuild their homes, other residents are thinking about how they can make their existing homes more fire resistant.

Beavers create messy wetlands as safe places to live, spreading out a stream into a network of channels, waterfalls and pools. A new study shows the positive side effects of that work, arguing that beavers could be a useful tool in reducing harm from flood, drought and wildfire 鈥� all made more frequent by climate change.

Environment

In the face of climate change, beavers are engineering a resistance

Alex Hager

Beavers create messy wetlands as safe places to live, and a new paper explains how their engineering is also a powerful tool in fending off the harms of climate change. Their dams, channels and ponds have positive side effects that reduce the damage caused by flood, drought and wildfire.

Environment

Review: Strong Winds, Human Error Likely Caused Elk Fire

Matt Bloom

A combination of weather conditions, inexperienced crew members and lack of government oversight likely caused a prescribed burn in rural Larimer County鈥�

Environment

Study Finds Grazing Results In More Flammable Grass, Not Less

Rae Ellen Bichell

Researchers from a number of states, including Idaho, Colorado and Nevada, have found that grazing does not help get rid of cheatgrass, a highly flammable鈥�

Science

Researchers Say We Need To Rethink Wildfire Management, And Burn More On Purpose

Rae Ellen Bichell

Colorado and Oregon researchers writing this week in the journal Science say there's an urgent need to reevaluate wildfire management practices, calling鈥�

Science

Gel Could Help Prevent Wildfires In High-Risk Areas

Rae Ellen Bichell

Wildland firefighters use fire retardant 鈥� the red stuff that air tankers drop 鈥� to suppress existing blazes. But Stanford researchers have developed a鈥�

Science

How Wildfires May Muck Up The West鈥檚 Reservoirs

Rae Ellen Bichell

Reservoirs can get messy after a big wildfire. The issue isn鈥檛 the fire itself, it鈥檚 what happens after. Ash deposits can make the ground repel water鈥�

Spring wildfires like the Indian Gulch blaze near Golden have officials worried for the months ahead

Environment

Jump In Wildfires Means Smoke's Health Impact Will Spread

Associated Press

Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will sweep across the鈥�