Drought drives early wildfire risk across U.S. regions (opens in new tab)

Wildfires have hit parts of Florida, Georgia and the Southeast timber belt after a record-breaking drought, destroying homes and timber plantations, The New York Times reported. The National Interagency Fire Center forecast elevated wildfire potential across much of the West and many Southeast states through August, ZME Science reported. Outside the United States, NRK reported that fires burned an area four times the size of Norway in the first four months of 2026 and that conditions are expe...