The perfect storm of meteorological conditions that led to California’s worst recorded set of wildfires weren’t just Santa Ana wind gusts, soaring temperatures, low humidity and the driest year ever. It was an odd Sept. 22, winter-like storm that dropped more than an inch of rain in the Los Angeles area (the most in more than a year), a half-inch in parts of San Diego and one-tenth of an inch even in the high desert to the east.

This perfect storm was just enough to reinvigorate dry chaparral, brush and other vegetation. A month later, this wildfire fuel was bone-dry again, and more plentiful for what was to come.

Some experts, such as Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona, and Amy Luers, California climate manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists, have a “big picture” scenario for the fires. It’s the change in climate, they warn, with earlier springs creating drier summers and more inferno autumns.

Says Swetnam, “Increasing numbers of large forest fires and total area burned in the western United States are significantly correlated with warming and drying trends. ... There is a clear upward trend in the area burned and numbers of large forest fires in the western U.S., especially since the mid-1980s.”

Adds Luers, “In terms of the wildfires we’re seeing today, while we can’t attribute these specific events to global warming, these are consistent with a trend of increasing wildfire activity throughout the West that has been linked to climate.”

We can concur with Swetnam and Luers on the climatic changes that are occurring, but there are too many variables, such as the lack of clearing of old underbrush, homes built in areas of high fire danger, inadequate forest management and bad luck, that should be considered before making Luers’ leap to her conclusion: “The science further suggests that if we do not make dramatic cuts in our emissions of global warming pollution, the wildfires throughout the West could lead to dramatic changes in the western landscapes.”

But this is what “the sky is falling” crowd is spinning for Californians and other Americans even before the flames are out.

Where was this crowd in November 1993, when more than 20 wildfires in Southern California consumed 193,814 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed four people?

Where was the crowd in September 1970, when wildfires in the San Diego County mountains charred 175,425 acres, destroyed 382 structures and killed six people?