As Seattle and western Washington is about to see temperatures above 100, experts are warning of the wildfire danger that comes along with the heat.

UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) faculty and researchers have spoken to various media outlets recently about the wildfire danger that comes with the hot temperatures.

SEFS Assistant Professor Brian J. Harvey spoke to The Hill this week about how a heat wave in the western U.S. has already sparked several fires.

“More than half of the current area burning is in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, though there are wildfires burning in other western U.S. states as well,” Harvey told The Hill. “The location of the bulk of the current fire activity lines up with most of the Southwest experiencing wildfire potential (fuel dryness) that is above normal for this time of year.”

Meanwhile, Washington Department of Natural Resources (WA DNR) Commission Hilary Franz, who was the keynote speaker at the 2021 SEFS Commencement Ceremony, spoke to KUOW’s The Record on Thursday about the danger the heat poses to Washington’s forest lands.

In the Methow Valley, Susan Prichard, resident of the area and fire ecologist with SEFS, and Paul Hessburg, landscape ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, recently led a Wildfire Walk through forests of the Twisp River drainage to discuss how climate change is affecting the landscape of the forest there. The walk was organized by the Methow Conservancy, according to a story by the Methow Valley News.

“This forest is going to change tremendously. There will just not be enough water …to grow these forests. The ponderosa pine will be the dominant species” because it has a tap root that allows it to survive with less water than other species, Hessburg told the news outlet.

For more information on research about wildfires and smoke at the University of Washington, go here.