19706

It seems more likely that a decline of total precipitation and humidity would be the direct cause of both temperature and fire incidence. It is fashionable to blame every weather problem on greenhouse gases and global warming, but in this case doing so may lead to false conclusions.

Paul Bade
Mankato, Minn.

Neither the study nor our story attributed the regional warming since 1970 to global warming. The study did find that spring and summer temperatures correlated with decreases in precipitation. —B. Harder