Experts are warning that the unprecedented heat wave that has roasted the West during the past two weeks has also set the stage for a potentially perilous wildfire season.
The relentless heat, which has shattered monthly high temperature records, has caused the mountain snowpack to virtually vanish from California’s Sierra Nevadas all the way to the Colorado Rockies. This puts the region in “uncharted territory” as it enters the wildfire season, said Jennifer Kay, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“A whole bunch of warning signs that are flashing at us,” agreed John Abatzoglou, who studies wildfires at the University of California at Merced. This early snowmelt…