fire
A Crowdsourced Wildfire App Tracks All of California’s Blazes
Watch Duty is already a lifeline for the state’s residents. Its reach could soon extend to more disasters and regions.
By Boone Ashworth
As Wildfires Get More Extreme, Observatories Are at Greater Risk
Climate change is making fire season worse. Now astronomers are feeling the heat.
By Katrina Miller
How Landsat Chronicled 50 Years on a Changing, Fiery Planet
The pioneering satellite program has provided the longest continuous document of how fire, global warming, and humanity are remaking our world.
By Sarah Scoles
Some Scientists Coined a New Name for Summer: ‘Danger Season’
Hurricanes, heat, fires, smoke, drought. Is it time to stop making the hottest part of the year seem cool?
By Kate Yoder
What the World’s Largest Organism Reveals About Fires and Forests
In Oregon, the tree-killing Humongous Fungus never would have gotten so large without the accidental help of modern fire suppression tactics.
By Colin Hogan
How Prescribed Burns Can Help Restore Eastern US Forests
A movement is growing to reintroduce controlled burns to forests and grasslands, bringing back the role of fire in creating biodiverse landscapes.
By Gabriel Popkin
Ukraine Is in an Environmental Crisis Too
Russia’s attack is literally tearing the country apart, polluting air and water. Ukrainians will suffer long after the conflict ends.
By Gregory Barber and Matt Simon
Wildfires Are Digging Carbon-Spewing Holes in the Arctic
Soaring temperatures are rapidly thawing permafrost, leading to huge sinkholes called thermokarst. Northern fires are making the situation even worse.
By Matt Simon
The Great Danger of the Tiny Bark Beetle
As the climate warms, this insect’s population is booming. That’s bad news for the ponderosa pines of the Sierra Nevada.
By Jennifer Clare Ball
The Twitter Wildfire Watcher Who Tracks California’s Blazes
When fire ignites, the race begins to alert the state’s residents of the path of destruction. One of the leading voices lives on the other side of the world.
By Boone Ashworth
Early Evidence of How Wildfire Smoke Alters Bird Migration
A team tracking the flights of four Tule geese from Alaska to California documented how the birds changed course in response to dense smoke.
By Kylie Mohr
Wildfires Used to Be Helpful. How Did They Get So Hellish?
Fires are supposed to reset ecosystems, paving the way for new growth. But human meddling and climate change have turned them into monsters.
By Matt Simon
A Zombie-Fire Outbreak May Be Growing in the North
“Overwintering” fires smolder under the snow, reigniting vegetation in the spring. New research shows the zombies may proliferate in a warmer world.
By Matt Simon
Something Was Wrong. My Nightgown Was in Flames
When a body is reduced, all at once, to a crude dichotomy of hot and cold, what happens to your soul?
By Virginia Heffernan
A Race Car Crash From Hell—and the Science That Saved Its Driver
Romain Grosjean’s F1 car slammed into a wall at 137 mph and burst into flames. He walked away because of decades of work by unsung scientists and engineers.
By Rachel Lance
Far Cry 5 Helped Me Escape Real Life, Until It Didn’t
What started as just another game quickly became a soothing window to home—and all the ugliness that comes with it.
By Boone Ashworth
When You Fly a Science Plane Through Wildfire Smoke
Aboard a decked-out C-130, researchers measure how smoke transforms from “fresh” to “stale” and begin to parse what that means for humans downwind.
By Matt Simon
What’s in Wildfire Smoke, and How Dangerous Is It?
Blazes on the West Coast are spewing a haze clear across the country. Along the way, the complex chemistry of what we inhale gets even more complex.
By Matt Simon
Those Orange Western Skies and the Science of Light
Sure, it was wildfire smoke that made parts of California and Oregon change hue. But inside that smoke was alchemy—the chemistry and physics of molecules and wavelengths.
By Adam Rogers
This Backyard Firepit Was Made for Cozy Gatherings
Solo Stove's 27-inch Yukon burns hot—and it'll give your household great s'mores for years to come.
By Parker Hall
Google Expands Its Fire-Tracking Tools—and Just in Time
A feature that maps wildfires in near-real time is getting a much bigger rollout as the western US continues to blaze.
By Lauren Goode and Boone Ashworth
The Debate Over Burning Dead Trees to Create Biomass Energy
Critics worry about the risks of overcutting and wood smoke. But supporters say the practice will prevent megafires—which release even more carbon dioxide.
By Jane Braxton Little
The Delicate Art—and Evolving Science—of Wildfire Evacuations
The still-burning Kincade Fire prompted one of the largest wildfire-related evacuations in California history—a legacy, in part, of two earlier deadly blazes.
By Aarian Marshall
Behold the Firenado's Twisting, Infernal Column of Flames
Call them fire tornadoes or fire whirls, these spinning conflagrations can tear roofs off houses and spread flames unpredictably. Here's how they work.
By Robbie Gonzalez