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Sunday, August 23rd, 2020

Wildfires are blazing new records as they burn in 15 Western states

Author:     Brandon Miller
Source:     CNN
Publication Date:     2:42 PM ET, Fri August 21, 2020
 Link: Wildfires are blazing new records as they burn in 15 Western states
Stephan:   Tens of thousands of people in the West are having to evacuate, hundreds of thousands of acres are already destroyed. Yet the media coverage has been very small. Massive forest fires at a scale never before seen have become a regular part of Western weather. This is going to have a massive impact on where people live, and that is going to significantly alter the economies of Western states, and it is all part of the climate change trend.
California wildfire Credit: CNN

Major wildfires are burning in California and other Western states. More than 20 major fires are burning in the Golden State, fueled by high temperatures. But states from the Northwest into the Rockies are also experiencing devastating wildfires.

California

  • The 660,000 acres burned in California so far is about the same area of land as Rhode Island.
  • Active fires from August alone have burned more than double the total acreage burned in California in 2019 (about 260,000 acres).
  • The LNU Lightning Complex fire is already the 10th largest in California history, at 219,000 acres.
  • Eight of the top 10 fires in California history have happened this decade. That’s since reliable data became available in 1932.
  • Having burned 219,000 acres in 96 hours since it started Monday morning, the LNU fire has burned the equivalent of one football field every 2 seconds since Monday morning.
  • According to Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Wednesday set a one-day record for the amount of wildfire smoke emissions coming from California fires. The fires put an estimated 3 million tons of carbon […]
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4 Comments

  1. Will on Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 6:52 am

    Where is our amazing military establishment during all this and I’m not referring to the National Guard? This is the time to bring military forces battle a collective danger, not clearing the way to a church for himself to wave a Bible.

    • Rev. Dean on Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      I agree with you, Will, that we should recall troops so they could help put out the fires. It is a much more useful purpose for their time than sitting in some foreign country, instead of saving our own.

  2. Tom N on Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 7:50 am

    This is tragic indeed and all available federal, state and local resources should be brought to bear, both to extinguish these fires, help the victims, and prevent future fires. I frequently read about theses awful fires in CA and cannot understand the dynamics of why they cannot be prevented? There is such a long historical record of these fires occurring it seems someone is not doing their due diligence. TN

    • Will on Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 3:24 pm

      Climate instability that brings drenching rains followed by long dry spells with unusually hot temperatures. I lived in Cali for some time in the 90s when we went through an extended drought, then fires, then it rained a lot, then I moved and it has gotten much worse since then. Still a beautiful part of the world with such varied and interesting landscape. Mother Nature is beyond man’s control better to work with her than against her.