Are Texas wildfires linked to climate change?

Texas has been experiencing one of its most severe wildfire seasons in history.  According to the Texas Forest Service, 3.8 million acres burned and 2,742 homes were destroyed by wildfires between Nov. 15, 2010 and Sept. 26, 2011.

President Barack Obama called attention to it in remarks Sept. 26, 2011. “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change,” he said in a fundraising event in San Jose, Calif.

Is it possible to draw a link between a specific weather event, such as the drought in Texas and the wildfires, and global climate change? Our readers were curious, and so were we.

As it turns out, this question has an interesting answer.