Nearly fifty large wildfires are blazing in the western United States. Wildfires are usually started by lightning, especially when the weather has been very dry.
Forest fires are examples of wildfires.
The wildfires burning right now cover more than 700,000 acres . This year's fires have been so bad that firefighters in California and Idaho called the Air Force National Guard, the U.S. Marines, and the U.S. Army for help. To make things worse, several thunderstorms on August 2nd started hundreds of new small fires. We knew there had to be a big fire somewhere, but I couldn't get much information on the local radio station. So, I went to the TOMS web site and looked at their latest aerosol map.