wildfires

Reservoirs across the West are slowly losing space to store water as dirt, sand and other sediment pile up behind dams, according to new, sweeping, nationwide research.

Much of the West sweltered through record-breaking heat this summer, as a strengthening El Niño, unusually warm oceans and ongoing human-caused climate change combined to push temperatures to historic levels.

Deaths and close calls while fighting wildfires have strained an already on-edge workforce. They've also raised questions about policies and priorities amid an intense wildfire season.

In 2025, roughly 4.5% of Utah homeowners policies — or nearly 1 in 20 — were not renewed by insurance providers. That’s the highest rate in the country, and 1.5% higher than the number two state California.

Small businesses in the West were hit hard, especially those that mitigate and suppress wildfires on the ground.

The National Interagency Fire Center predicts normal fire potential for September and above average precipitation in Wyoming.

The faster a fire burns, the more severe its ecological impacts. That's one of the findings of a new paper in the journal Science Advances. Climate change only promises to further accelerate those fires, according to its lead author.

Blame wildfires and hail — made more destructive by climate change — for the deteriorating insurance situation in the West. Add in hurricanes and other disasters elsewhere, and it’s a nationwide trend — one that a new report from the advocacy group the Insurance Fairness Project says is threatening home sales.

From Spokane, Wash. to Pueblo County, Colo., fast-moving fires have again wreaked havoc in neighborhoods this summer. Now, a network of scientists, fire professionals and other experts have joined forces to seek research-based solutions to the problem.

So-called process based restoration (PBR) has a number of ecological benefits. But it can make ecosystems more resilient to wildfires when they come, and better able to recover in their wake.