American wildfires, 2012

Statistics on wildfires in America just now:

--Right this moment, there are 62--count 'em, 62--"uncontained, large fires" burning across America.

--Those 62 fires are raging in 10 states, with most of them in the West.

--In July this year alone, 2,014,395 acres burned. The average over 10 years is 1,585,656 acres burned.

--Wildfires this year burned states from Arizona and New Mexico clear up to Idaho and Washington, inclusive.

--"By mid-July, there were 32 large wildfires active across the nation, entirely across the western states — two in both Washington and Nevada; three in California and Montana; four in Oregon, Idaho, and Arizona; and five in Utah and Wyoming."

--"On July 31st, there were 29 large wildfires active nationwide. Two fires were active in Florida..."

--"In total, 20 fires were active across the western states of California, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming."

I ask you, do you ever remember a Summer--or even a whole year--when so much of our nation was consumed by wildfires?

Because I sure don't.

And as if that isn't enough, it's even a problem for our Northern neighbor, Canada:

Rare wildfires threaten Canadian polar bear habitat

(Reuters) - Wildfires sparked by lightning near Canada's Hudson Bay are threatening the habitat of polar bears, encroaching on the old tree roots and frozen soil where females make their dens, a conservation expert on the big, white bears said on Thursday.

Polar bears are more typically threatened by the melting of sea ice, which they use as platforms for hunting seals, their main prey. But those who live near Hudson Bay spend their summers resting up on shore when the bay thaws, living in dens dug in the frozen soil among the roots of stunted spruce trees.

Come to your own conclusions.

Links: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/fire/

http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2904/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/16/us-polarbears-wildfires-idUSBRE87F1FF20120816

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/us-usa-wildfires-west-idUSBRE87F19Y20120817?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews