California’s catastrophic 2020 wildfire season kicked off midway through the hottest August on record with a dry thunderstorm in which 12,000 lighting strikes ignited hundreds of fires over the course of a week. America’s best fire researchers have been trying to learn more about what causes fires—especially extreme fire events like fire tornadoes. Reporter Daniel Duane talks to Get WIRED Host Lauren Goode about his November cover story for Wired magazine, which goes deep into the cutting edge of fire research.