Here is what our local and popular weatherperson Cliff Mass has to say about the cause or possible causes of the exceptional Alberta wildfires:

The proximate cause of all this warmth and dryness? Here is the pressure (height) anomaly for the last 3 months in the midtroposphere (500hPa). You will notice very strong, small-scale, persistent area of high pressure (red color). The same ridge that gave us a wet winter and warmth. Why was the ridge there? At this point it appears to be natural variability, but perhaps someone may find a connection with human forcing. But that connection does not exist today.

Perhaps.

Perhaps the New York Times has found not one but several such people. The piece is "Global Warming Cited as Wildfires Increase in Fragile Boreal Forest." It contains comments by scientists who not only suspect that the wildfires are linked to global warming but also long ago predicted this sort of thing would happen in this and similar parts of the world.

Read the NYT post and you will understand why Cliff Mass is the most dangerous weatherperson in the Pacific Northwest. Many scientists are willing to make the connection and ring an alarm that might save lives. Mass will not.