Colorado Ranks Eighth in Top 10 Most Dangerous Wildfire States
Last summer, Colorado made history it never wanted to make with the largest wildfire in state history. This summer, while it's dealt with its own fires, Colorado residents have noticed how the state suffers because of other high-burn states. We know that Colorado summers are smoke and fire-prone, but it has officially ranked as the number eight most dangerous state for wildfires, according to move.org.
From 2019-2020, move.org logged the leading causes for fires in the top states affected by them, and Colorado came in with its leading cause as arson. Now, the Morgan Creek fire this year was started by lightning, but the Cameron Peak Fire from 2020 is still under investigation.
Move.org found a major difference in their research between the western and eastern parts of the United States. It feels pretty obvious to say that the western part of the country has the most dangerous wildfire states. California's always on fire, Oregon smoke tracks over into Colorado, and Texas and Arizona are just dry and hot.
But, Coloradans also know that this state can very dry very quickly. Most of the state, especially the western side, is in the red zone for drought watch for a lot of the year. 2020 was especially bad, and Colorado saw a difference of 718.3% in burn acreage from 2019 to 2020.
According to move.org and other outlets, especially recently, accredit the increase in wildfire threat to climate change. The Nature Conservancy talks about Colorado's roots as a dry state and how that is just made worse as the planet as a whole warms. As forests dry out, it just provides more kindling for fires to burn a larger path.
The suggested course of action around the globe, as large as it seems, is tackling climate change. This one, albeit major, cause of the uptick in wildfire threats is creating a domino effect into ecosystems and the economy of these high-risk states. It takes statewide, countrywide, and worldwide collaboration and interest to drop the numbers for these natural disasters.