Across the United States, some 58,000 wildfires have burned more than 9.2 million acresthis year, making the air in many towns and cities too dangerous to breathe. All told, 2017 is now second only to 2015 as the worst wildfire season on record. …So what’s going on here? This must be climate change at work, right? Yes and no. Scientists have found that human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency and size of wildfires for much of the United States, particularly in forested areas like those that burned in Montana in September and in Northern California in October. …Jon Keeley, a senior scientist at the US Geological Survey and an adjunct professor at the University of California Los Angeles says, “When we look at Southern California and coastal California, there’s no relationship between climate change and fire.”