7 takeaways from the seemingly endless fire season
… The Line fire and others feed on a “whiplash” between very wet conditions and extremely hot conditions. “It’s arguably the worst climate sequence for the wildfire in Southern California,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. For the past two years, wet conditions have caused vegetative growth that quickly dried out during the coastal heat wave that began last week. Fire intensity and behavior is a function of how much fuel is available to burn, so a rapid loss in moisture can create a feast for wildfires. The phenomenon is so new, Dr. Swain said, science could require a new term to articulate. That’s because climate change makes it increasingly likely there will be back-to-back seasons like these of extreme rain, followed by extreme heat, that could worsen fire conditions.
Related articles:
- Deseret News: Wildfires rage in California, Nevada, other Western states
- CNN: Line, Airport and Davis fires grow in California and Nevada, displacing thousands
- Los Angeles Times: Skies above Southern California wildfire looked like ‘a nuclear warhead had been set off’
- New York Times: The trade-off for mountain tranquillity in California? Increasing fire risk.