There is a lot of media coverage now about the wildfires out West. And you can feel the underlying sentiment that this is epic stuff, the concern that global warming is behind it. Some media have even stated the connection after recent fires. Problem is, in today’s Internet world, bad news spreads like, well, you know.

In the long term, scientists indeed see a connection between global warming and increased wildfire activity. But you can’t blame any one fire, or even one season, on climate change. Too many other factors (logging, not logging, rain, wind, idiots who start fires) are at work.
And 2007, despite what you’ve read, has not been that bad. While anyone suffering a fire in their neck of the woods right now probably thinks it’s a terrible fire season, so far this year is not as bad as last year and is only slightly worse than the 10-year average.

As of this morning, there are 56 fires more than 500 acres in size burning in the United States. Seventeen new wildfires started yesterday.

There have been 49,167 wildfires so far this year. By this time last year, there were 61,180.

Acreage burned to date:

• 2007: 2.29 million
• 2006: 3.99 million
• 10-year average: 2.27 million

You can see this all charted here.