cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
It's getting scary in California, record-breaking wildfires have displaced 120k, killed seven so far, and many of the fires are spreading uncontrolled, apparently they have destroyed at least tens of thousands of structures, burned through the equivalent acreage of a small state and sent plumes of smoke over several regions, forcing millions indoors during a heat wave.
It must be bad, because even Trump has declared the situation as a "major disaster", and has released federal aid, plus the call has gone out for other states to send help.
It must be bad, because even Trump has declared the situation as a "major disaster", and has released federal aid, plus the call has gone out for other states to send help.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week will be critical as more than 14,000 firefighters battle 17 major fire complexes, largely in Northern California where wildfires have surrounded the city of San Francisco on three sides, singeing coastal redwoods that have never been burned. The wildfires, all caused by lightning, have been burning for a week.
“We are dealing with different climate conditions that are precipitating in fires the likes we haven’t seen in modern recorded history,” he said Monday.
California wildfires: Prepare to be away from home for days
California fire officials are cautiously optimistic after dodging a major lightning storm, but they are pleading with residents to stay out of evacuation zones and prepare for days away from home a…www.mercurynews.com
Is this normal?
Quite the opposite. “It’s hard to even process,” Swain [ a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles ] said.
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. At least in recent history, “most fires in California are started by humans”, explained Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at UC Merced – sparked by power lines, equipment failures, car accidents and campfires. “And when fires are started by humans, they tend to happen in areas accessible to humans – close to roads and trails,” Kolden explained. “These fires are sometimes easier to spot and report quickly” and quell before they get too big, she said.
The recent lightning sparked many little fires, peppered across rough terrain – too remote for firefights to get to quickly, but also dangerously close to where Californians live. Storms do spark fires in California every year, but most big thunderstorms tend to land over the mountains – the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath Mountains, the Cascade Range, Stephens said. “That the lightning fell so close to urban areas was very unusual.”
Meanwhile, California’s landscape had been left parched by an extraordinarily dry winter and hot springtime and further desiccated by the historic heatwave that immediately preceded the lightning storms, turning vegetation into kindling that helped the little fires grow big and fierce, Swain said. He was struck by images of a vineyard near Vacaville, where flames cut through irrigation lines – which he expected would have broken their path. “I don’t think I’ve seen that before,” he said, noting that it spoke to how dry the landscape was.
Peak fire season is traditionally in the autumn, when volatile offshore winds spread hot embers into infernos. But these fires are growing so quickly that they’re creating their own winds. “These fires are doing such crazy things, they’re moving so fast, and they’re dangerous to approach,” Swain said. “It’s no wonder fire crews are overwhelmed.”
California's wildfires explained: how did they start – and is this normal?
Extreme weather set the stage for the blazes tearing through cities and rural areas. They are likely to continue for weekswww.theguardian.com
