The Year in Pictures 2000

August
On Aug. 17, 86 major wildfires, including this one in Sula, Montana, raged in a dozen western states. Five million acres of U.S. land had already burned in the year 2000, more than double the annual average for recent decades. Was this an aberration, or had global warming so affected the planet that this was a sign of seasons to come?

• Person of the Year 2000: George W. Bush