BREAKING NEWS! Utah is Dry

Salt Lake Tribune: "The numbers have confirmed the grim testimony of thousands upon thousands of wildfire-scorched acres of Utah land: June 2012 is tied for the driest June on record."

Let's check in with NOAA on Utah's precipitation history. Shall we.

Annual Precipitation

Utah

Annual 1895 - 2011 Data Values:

Annual 1901 - 2000 Average = 11.61 Inches

Annual 1895 - 2011 Trend = 0.14 Inches / Decade

29 of the top 30 driest years in Utah's history, occurred before 1990. Most western states show an increasing precipitation trend over the last 100 years. Want proof?

"Climate change is clearly playing a role," said Kevin Trenberth, who leads the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. "There are wildfires all over the place." Trenberth and his fellow scientists... said their review of new research shows a pattern that points to a warmer world and, in the West, a drier, fire-prone one. Salt Lake Tribune.

Colorado Burning

You'd think the entire state of Colorado is on fire judging by the media coverage. I get the impression the "journalists" think wildfires are a rare event. Here's a little perspective.

In 2011, the nationwide number of wildfires was... 73,484...
which burned 8.7 million acres.

During June of 2011, there were 6,567 fires,
which burned 1.3 million acres.

Average acres burned annually... 6,520,307

Average number of fires annually... 76,468

Source: NOAA

Year to date 2012 nationwide fires... 27,176