![]() ![]() To make matters worse, people have been moving farther and farther into the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, which puts them at risk of experiencing, or even starting a fire. This leaves few resources, little time and less money to conduct the type of forest management needed that could help mitigate destructive fires in the first place. But about 50 percent of the Forest Service's yearly budget goes to combating massive fires across the west, according to the agency. Now, forest and fire management officials are working overtime to make up for losses, combatting overgrowth through mechanical trimming of brush and the prescribed burning of tens of thousands of acres, according to Outside. If intense fires occur too frequently, native plant species can become replaced by, say, invasive grasses, which burn quickly and don’t hold soil well. For example, a chaparral stand may have a burn cycle of anywhere from 30 to 100 years, where a ponderosa pine stand may need only a few years between each fire. ![]() But these delicate systems often operate on specific cycles. Some native plant and tree species even require it to sprout new growth. Many of California’s ecosystems are well-adapted to fire. For more than a century, fire management officials have suppressed fires in the West, leading to an overgrowth of vegetation, or fuel, in ecosystems, according to the U.S. It turns out Smokey Bear’s famous mantra “Only YOU can prevent forest fires” did more harm than good in the grand scheme of things. “We used to have a much more reliable rainy season and fire season, and a lot of variables are just shifting at the moment.” Reason #2: The Winds “It just gets harder to predict,” Faith Kearns, of the University of California Institute for Water Resources in Oakland, told National Geographic. In reality, “fire season” is a remnant of cooler world. And the state's fire season has gotten considerably longer, too, extending up to 75 days, in some cases. The amount of land burned across California in the summer is roughly eight times higher than in the 1970s, according to National Geographic. In our increasingly warming world, ecosystems will continue to dry out, and subsequently, fires will only get more fierce, more frequent, and burn more of the state. 2015, 20, the next hottest years, saw the Valley Fire (the fourth most destructive in California history), the Thomas Fire in Ventura County (281,893 acres burned) and both the Camp Fire (the single deadliest fire in California’s history) and the Mendocino Complex Fire (the state’s largest ever), respectively. ![]() The Sobranes fire tore through Monterey County in 2016, burning over 132,000 acres. In 2016, the hottest year on record, the average global temperature was 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA. These conditions have made it especially easy for massive wildland fires to ignite and quickly burn through parched vegetation.Īs the The New York Times reports, nine of the 10 largest fires in the state’s history have occurred in the past ten years, and it’s no coincidence that nine of the ten hottest years on record have happened since 2000. Drier conditions mean less snowpack in the Sierras, less runoff in the spring, and less moisture for vegetation. In recent years, California’s climate has gotten hotter. There is no question that climate change has played a significant role in shaping the number and intensity of these fires. So why is California burning so badly? Reason #1: Climate Change It takes a perfect storm of conditions to turn a small spark into a vast conflagration that can char hundreds of thousands of acres. If it seems like these fires have gotten more frequent, more intense, and lasted longer, you’re right. With high winds and crushing heat expected this week, the outlook is grim. The spread of COVID-19 has complicated the response to many of these fires this year resources are tight, and agencies are stretched thin without the help of inmate firefighters, who typically assist in the effort. In recent years, Pacific Gas & Electric's poorly maintained infrastructure have sparked a number of large fires, several have been ignited by discarded cigarette butts, and a handful of blazes have spiraled out of control at homeless encampments or been set off by fireworks.įighting these fires in California's varied terrain is undoubtedly challenging, as firefighters have deep canyons and steep hills to contend with. While some fires do occur naturally-like those sparked by this week's lightning storm-most are inadvertently set by humans, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. ![]()
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