Quote of the day

Summer is barely two weeks old and two-thirds of the country is in the grip of a severe drought. More crops will die. More forests will burn. More power brokers will become familiar with the consequences of a derecho. It sounds biblical, but smart scientists have been predicting this very cycle.

Read the whole article (NYT). This exceptionally bad beginning to the fire season -- which has already destroyed 346 homes in Colorado Waldo Canyon fire alone, and an additional 259 homes in the High Park fire, a total of more than 600 homes in Colorado in the first few weeks of summer -- is down to dry conditions likely related to the recent La Nina coupled with global warming. Hot and dry is a bad combination.