Wildfires have been raging across California, ripping through wildlands as well as cities, towns and rural neighborhoods, forcing thousands of residents to flee amid a heatwave and the coronavirus pandemic. The blazes have blackened skies, spewing smoke across the Bay Area and sprinkling ash across the region. Sparked by a rare lightning storm and stoked by hot, windy weather, the fires have expanded quickly into the Sierra Nevada, southern California, and regions north, east and south of San Francisco.
A confluence of extreme weather conditions set the stage, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
First came a record-breaking, continuing heatwave across the state. Temperatures in Death Valley hit F and the state saw rolling blackouts for the first time in nearly two decades as millions of Californians seeking to cool their homes strained the electrical grid. Next, a tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean spun moisture toward California, triggering a rare lighting storm that zapped California more than 10, times over a three-day period, sparking small fires across the Bay Area and northern California.
Then the humidity dropped and winds picked up, stoking the small flames until they erupted into full-blown infernos. On Saturday, one of the wildfires in northern California spawned a fire tornado — a 30,ft smoky swirl that frizzled with lightning, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a first-of-its-kind weather alert.
The firenado died down, but many fires peppered across the state continued to expand. The lighting storms that started the fires were an odd occurrence in the Bay Area — and the blazes they created are especially tricky to fight. The blaze ignited August 14 and was 23 percent contained as of Thursday. It was 52 percent contained as of Thursday. Spread by winds reaching 40 mph and fueled by abundant dry vegetation, wildfires across the Golden State have whipped up enormous clouds of smoke and ash.
Some have even spawned fire tornadoes. ChaparralFire Thank you, Cy Phenice for this powerful video clip of the fire conditions yesterday. Across the United States as a whole, more than 2. Researchers said that the current fires align with what they forecast earlier this year , noting that the region was parched by a massive drought, was facing severe heat, and had plenty of trees, brush, and grass ready to burn. Even so, the blazes have proved surprising in other ways.
The Caldor and Dixie fires are the first wildfires on record to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range, posing new challenges for firefighters working to contain them.
There are several key ingredients needed for wildfires. They need favorable weather, namely dry and windy conditions. They need fuel. And they need an ignition source.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that they are still investigating the origins of most of the blazes underway. But other factors this year stacked the deck in favor of massive conflagrations. California and much of the western US are in the midst of a years-long drought. With limited moisture, plants dry out and turn into kindling. Ordinarily, vegetation at higher altitudes would still hang onto some moisture and act as a barrier to wildfires in places like the Sierra Nevada.
However, the severity of the drought has caused even this greenery to turn yellow and gray. Moisture in the soil and in vegetation can also act as a cooling mechanism as it evaporates. With the drought, this effect is diminished, allowing even more heat to accumulate and pushing temperatures up to the new record highs achieved this summer. The hot weather in turn drove even more drying across the landscape, reaching aridity levels not typically seen until October.
As the autumn Santa Ana and Diablo winds pick up, the risks remain high. Climate change, unfortunately, is fueling many of these relentless fires, and it seems as though they'll worsen with the ongoing climate crisis.
Between California's relentlessly long dry season, their high population, the U. However, if you'd like to help , we strongly suggest donating time, money, and materials to help the victims of the California fires. These last few years have been incredibly difficult, especially amid the ongoing pandemic. Green Matters is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
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