The Marshall Fire that swept through the Boulder, Colorado area in the last days of 2021 seemed to be an aberration - a destructive wildfire raging while just a few miles away, skiers took turns through Rocky Mountain powder. But as we are learning on a daily basis, climate change predictably creates unpredictable weather events. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Bob Berwyn of Inside Climate News to learn what this fire that destroyed over one thousand homes reveals to us about the new normal.

Narrator  0:01  This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Bob Berwyn  0:19  Denver was just experiencing what was probably going to be its longest ever snow-free period more than 220 days with no measurable snowfall. And that's directly linked to the something like the Marshall Fire because when you have snow on the ground, it makes it moister. And you know having that extended period of time just drives everything out more.

Narrator  0:43  The Marshall Fire that swept through the Boulder, Colorado area in the last days of 2021 seemed to be an aberration. A destructive wildfire raging well, just a few miles away, skiers took turns through Rocky Mountain powder. But as we're learning on a daily basis, climate change predictably creates unpredictable weather events. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Bob Berwyn of Inside Climate News to learn what this fire that destroyed over 1000 homes reveals to us about the new normal.

Alex Wise  1:34  I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Bob Berwyn. He is a science writer for Inside Climate News. Bob, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Bob Berwyn  1:42  Thanks, Alex.

Alex Wise  1:44  So you have two new pieces in Inside Climate News that tackle some of the latest whether we I would say aberrations, but because of climate change, these aberrations are more than norm. But why don't you kind of summarize what's been happening in the Front Range area of Colorado and how that reflects on some of your work in a larger sense.

Bob Berwyn  2:09  Well, I think  the culmination of a sort of a barrage of global warming, extraordinary heat events this summer, and in the wider West, really set the stage for the horrific fires that broke out near boulder on December 30. What a sad and frightening punctuation mark to the year in terms of climate and speaking with the two climate scientists who live in that area, and who made personal observations during the fires were. Those were gripping conversations. One of the scientists who's studied forests and fires for decades, a lot of it at CU Boulder right there said this event really is just changing his conception of where he thinks it's safe to live and where he thinks it's not safe to live. That's how unusual this  fire was to, you know, to a guy who studies it professionally. And both of them talked about just incredible amounts of debris and barely being able to open car doors and stand outside in the wind and described the fire racing along cedar fences, almost like a lit fuse, you know, on a piece of dynamite or something like that the wind was pushing it so fast along the fence. And then when he would hit a dry tree or a deck or even a swing set in a backyard close to a house, there'd be another little in the house is gone 20 minutes later.

Alex Wise 3:48  And are you talking about the Marshall Fire here?

Bob Berwyn  3:51  We're talking about the Marshall Fire that started December 30 and still causes still being investigated. Unfortunately. At last report, two people are still missing. And I think they're kind of assuming that they're dead, and may have found some partial root human remains. And it burned 1000 houses and structures of different types homes and businesses and into ...