Insight: Wildfires exhibit wild behavior Fire tornados, fire induced windstorms and 'dry lightning' create new challenges in bone dry western forests. By Matthew CappucciThe Washington Post Share Months remain until the peak of wildfire season in the western U.S., but hundreds of blazes have already torched more than a million acres, pouring smoke into the sky and offering an ominous warning of what’s ahead in the fall. Bone-dry conditions and anomalously high temperatures are fostering the perfect recipe for extreme wildfire danger, an issue that will only grow as the winds kick up in August and September. It’s also making for extreme fire behavior, with rapid growth and spread of wildfires, several of which have grown large enough to create their own weather systems.