wildfire

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

How The Wildfire Season Got So Extreme – 2020 The Year The West Was Burning

More than 4 million acres of California went up in flames in 2020 – about 4% of the state’s land area and more than double its previous wildfire record. Five of the state’s six largest fires on record were burning this year. In Colorado, the Pine Gulch fire broke the record for that state’s largest wildfire, only to be surpassed by two larger blazes, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires. Oregon saw one of the most destructive fire seasons in its recorded history, with more than 4,000 homes destroyed. What caused the 2020 fire season to become so extreme? Fires thrive on three elements: heat, dryness and wind. The 2020 season was dry, but the Western U.S. has seen worse droughts in the recent decade. It had several record-breaking heat waves, but the fires did not necessarily fol...

Thousands Forced To Evacuate Near Los Angeles: Here’s How The 2020 Western Wildfire Season Got So Extreme

Two wildfires erupted on the outskirts of cities near Los Angeles, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes Monday as powerful Santa Ana winds swept the flames through dry grasses and brush. With strong winds and extremely low humidity, large parts of California were under red flag warnings. High fire risk days have been common this year as the 2020 wildfire season shatters records across the West. More than 4 million acres have burned in California – 4% of the state’s land area and more than double the previous annual record. Five of the state’s six largest historical fires happened in 2020. In Colorado, the Pine Gulch fire that started in June broke the record for size, only to be topped in October by the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires. Oregon saw one of the mo...

Wildfire Smoke Is Laced With Toxic Chemicals – Here’s How They Got There

When you breathe in smoke from a wildfire, you’re probably inhaling more toxic chemicals than you realize. Pollution from power plants and vehicles, pesticides, fertilizers and chemicals in waste can all make their way into trees and plants. When those trees and plants burn, chemicals are released along with health-harming particulate matter in the smoke, gas and ash. Millions of people have been breathing that smoky air this year as the western U.S. experiences another extreme fire year. More than 4 million acres had burned in the West by Oct. 1, California had nearly doubled its previous record for acreage burned, and several weeks of wildfire risk were still ahead. As an engineer and scientist who studies air pollution, I have been looking into how those chemicals compound the health...