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Yesterday, ABC's Brian Rooney (subscription required), CBS' John Blackstone and KNBC meteorologist Fritz Coleman explained the role of the Santa Ana winds in the wildfires. Dave Price, meteorologist for CBS' Early Show, added another factor: "Go back to the winter and spring of 2005," he reminded us. That season was so wet that "lots of things were in bloom, even in Death Valley." The kindling for these fires turns out to be that excess vegetation two years later, all dried out. NBC tried to generalize from these fires. Environmental correspondent Anne Thompson filed an Our Planet feature that reminded us that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had warned that one consequence of global warming would be an increase in wildfires. Thompson also checked off this fall's stronger-than-usual tornados, the lack of fall foliage in the Carolinas and a late first frost in Minnesota as other possible symptoms of a trend. "Does this all add up to global warming?" she wondered--before equivocating. "Scientists say you cannot answer that question after just one season."
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