It doesn't change fondamentally your argument viz the role of climate change in increasing fire intensity but for the sake of accuracy, let me interject that temperatures were not noticeably above the long-term mean in southern Cal during 2007. Warmer temperatures in previous years did play a role insofar much vegetation died and provided fuel for the current fires.
Last 90 days (Aug-Sept-Oct) temperature and anomaly:
and the same for May-June-July:
Some food for though for the Lovelock-type doomsayers: extreme weather phenomena must be requiring special conditions to occur - say, hot waters and cool upper atmosphere for hurricanes, or pecially alternating wet and dry seasons for great fires. Can we observe that special conditions for extreme phenomena are occurring with "suspicious" regularity (rather than in chaotic sequence)? Can we make falsifiable theories from here that Mother Nature could be "really" fighting the new anthropogenic stresses in rather "expert" ways?
Another important factor was that the previous 2 summer were very wet there, especially 2004.
Sorry for bad typo.
I'd think that conditions for extreme meteorology are occuring with greater regularity insofar the average of weather phenoms has moved toward what we consider extreme relative to the past. Chaotic behavior will continue to occur about the evolving mean, but I am not sure I am addressing your comment.
