The Christian Science Monitor does a good job of putting the wildfires raging across Texas into context:
Drenching rains from hurricane Alex last July caused a huge plant bloom, which was largely killed off by this year's uncommonly cold winter across the southern US and northern Mexico.
Added to the driest March in state history, those factors set up a massive tinderbox that has exploded with devastating effect. ... So far, up to 650 blazes have scorched 400 square miles of rolling plains in west Texas. ... By comparison, Texas saw 167 wildfire blazes last year.
What the Monitor doesn't say, though, is that these extremes -- uncommonly cold winters, hurricanes, and droughts -- are exactly the sort of weird weather patterns that climate change engenders. Scientists can't tie any one dramatic weather event (Hurricane Katrina, say) to climate change, but they do know that patterns of extreme and unusual weather will become more common as average global temperatures rise.
