Concerns about fire outlook grow as California heat wipes out tall grass

Though there are still weeks until the height of fire season, more than 242,000 acres have already burned in California, nearly double the normal amount for this time of year. According to statistics from the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection..

While the number of fires so far is typical for this time of summer, the extreme heat of early summer has dried out the land, increasing the risk of wildfires and casting a major doubt over what had seemed a relatively bright season.

“Wildfire conditions across the West continue to worsen and unfortunately will get worse,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said at a briefing on Thursday. “The past 30 days have been the warmest on record across a significant portion of California and the West.”

More than 2,000 firefighters are working the Lake Fire northwest of Santa Barbara. It started on July 5th and grew rapidly in the tall grass.The fire has grown to more than 38,000 acres and is currently 73 percent contained. An additional 2,900 firefighters are working to contain the Shelley Fire. It burned more than 15,000 acres on the eastern side of the Klamath National Forest..

After California experienced two consecutive wet winters, the National Association of Fire Agencies had predicted moderate fire activity in the state this summer and fall. This month's seasonal forecast has been revised upwards.He said the grass that had grown tall during the rainy weather had bounced back quickly with the heat.

“You know, we've had two really great winters where the atmospheric river came in and saved California from drought, but the tradeoff is that now we have a ton of grass and shrubs that are dead and ready to burn,” said Caitlin Trudeau, a senior scientist at nonprofit research organization Climate Central.

Swain said recent outbreaks of “dry lightning” – thunderstorms that don't produce rain – were of particular concern because long-range forecasts showed another heat wave hitting the region in late July, which could exacerbate existing fires.

A recent analysis from satellite monitoring company Maxar suggests that soil moisture levels in California dropped sharply from early June through July 15, while temperatures over the same period were about 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than in 2020.

That year, it was June in California. Drought outlook and wildfire risk profile similar to this year. after that, More than 10,000 lightning strikes hit California Dozens of fires broke out over a three-day period in mid-August. Fueled by a heat wave, many of these fires grew rapidly and eventually evolved into three complex fires. One of these, the August Complex Fire, primarily affected the Mendocino National Forest and burned more than one million acres.

A total of 33 people have died in California's 2020 wildfires and scorched 4.5 million acres.

“It's really concerning to see these statistics because we're only halfway through July, and the last major thunderstorms of 2020 were in August,” Trudeau said of the data early this year. “We're already starting to see dry thunderstorms. We still have a long way to go to close out the year.”

Across the U.S., more than 1 million acres have burned so far this year, with 54 major fires currently under containment, according to the National Joint Fire Center.

Wildfire season is off to an early and active start in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in Oregon, with several large blazes burning in remote areas.

Around 1,600 firefighters are working to bring the blaze under control. Falls Fire burns at 114,000 acres in eastern Oregonand one more 600 people were battling the 83,000-acre Lone Rock Fire It is located in the central part of the state, about 40 miles south of the Columbia River. The other fire, the Cow Valley Fire, is More than 130,000 acres burned Near the Oregon and Idaho border.

On the other hand, small forest fires caused by lightning Thursday on Highway 20 in northern Washington.In other parts of the state, The Pioneer Fire along the eastern shore of Lake Chelanthe air quality in the area was deteriorating.

As of Tuesday, the most manpower deployed to fight wildfires in five years. according to National Joint Fire Center data.