Unseasonal wildfires beset midwest: ‘The strangest winter I’ve ever seen’

El Nino weather phenomenon has contributed to warm, dry conditions in US, leading to more fires much earlier in the year

The US midwest typically spends the start of spring emerging from snow. But this year, after a warm winter left landscapes parched, the region instead was primed to burn. Hundreds of blazes ignited in recent months in states more accustomed to dealing with just dozens for this time of year, as extreme fire behavior defied seasonal norms.

Experts say the unusually early and active fire season was a symptom of El Nino, a climate pattern characterized by warmer surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that was predicted to supercharge global heating and extreme weather. But the climate crisis turned up the dial, and helped create conditions in the midwest where winter temperature records were not only broken - they were smashed.