Range fires are an ever-present threat in the Southwest, from right around the heart of Texas (a line from Fort Worth through San Angelo down to Del Rio) as far west as the shores of California. While the most recent fires in Texas have, thankfully, claimed no lives, the fire danger at red-flag levels nearly every day over at least part of the Lone Star State.

This is another thing climate change isn’t going to improve. I live at the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, in a place where we average 11 inches of rain a year (you don’t want to be outside the day it comes, either). It’s always dry here. This year, after last year’s record-setting rains (yes, we had fires; but not as many and they weren’t as big, because it started raining in January 2007 and kept raining until October; but then it quit, and hasn’t really rained since, let alone snowed despite winter storm watch after National Weather Service hysteria attack for the last four months), there’s a lot of fuel in the parts of Texas that had not yet recovered from the Spring 2006 fires — and we’re burning again. If you know a firefighter, give ‘em a hug. You never know when you’ll get another chance.