Report from LA – Update on the Fires in California
Fires are burning our state from the Oregon border to the Mexican border. https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/ Most of the fires began in the areas around the Bay Area due to dry lightning strikes during a heat wave. That was followed by an even worse heat wave with record temperatures up to 121 degrees in Woodland Hills, not far from us. Then the seasonal Diablo and Santa Ana winds (hot dry desert winds) began to blow and exacerbated the existing fires and started some new ones.
Most of the fires were started by heat induced dry lightning. The Big Sur fire was started by arson. The El Dorado fire in the LA region was started by carelessness in lighting fireworks at a gender reveal party. The cause of the massive Creek fire, which threatened hikers and campers in the Sierras near Mammoth and Shaver and Huntington lakes over the Labor Day weekend is as yet undetermined.
The fires have burned about 3 million acres; that’s 10 times as much as a typical fire season. Our skies are orange with the smoke and the sun an eerie red-orange. Our typical fire season is September and October, so this year’s fires have started early and are far more frequent than usual.
Why are the burns so bad this year? We have lots of dead trees due to past droughts. We have had hotter than normal temperatures due to global warming, making the state bone dry. Many of the fires are in the mountains and the forests so there is less property damage and lower loss of life, but they are very tough to fight due to the steep and inaccessible terrain.
The fear we all have is that this is all just getting started, and it will be worse later in the year and still worse in years to come as climate change makes the state hotter and drier.
We have a lot of work to do to slow climate change, starting with dumping the denier in chief who thinks this could all be solved if we would just rake our leaves in the state and federal forest lands. In the meantime, let’s all appreciate the firefighters (including state prisoners) who are putting their lives on the line for all our safety.