The frequency and intensity of wildfire is often cited as an example of climate change. Many websites refer to both anecdotes and data to show that the incidence of fire is increasing in North America/ the USA. An example is ‘Facts and Statistics’. This website presents the following graph
This is another example of cherry-picking data. The US Forest Service has been measuring the incidence of wildfire for a much longer period. Their graph shows that when data are evaluated over 100 years, the recent increase is relatively insignificant compared to the incidence of fires prior to 1950.
