The wildfire that raged through Colorado’s Waldo Canyon, just one of the many that lit up the state in recent weeks, consumed 346 homes and claimed at least one life. The event is consistent with predictions made by the world’s top climate scientists.

Scientists have long warned that the human activities that lead to climate change are responsible for the cotton-dry conditions in which the fire prevailed.

Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, a lead author of the United Nations’ climate science panel, said: “What we’re seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like. It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster. … This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future.”

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly