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THREE OF THE LARGEST\u00a0<\/span>wildfires in California’s history are\u00a0all now burning<\/a>\u00a0at the same time. It has firefighters, mayors, homeowners, area businesses, scientists and politicians extraordinarily worried. It is also, unfortunately, an ominous portent of things to come in a world where extreme heat during days and nights combines with forests that can combust like kindling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n China Invests in the Environment \u2013 but at What Cost?<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What makes the situation so troubling is that it comes on the heels of the hottest month in the state’s history. California had its\u00a0hottest month\u00a0<\/a>in July. Forests, and vegetation, are at record levels of dryness. What is equally as stunning is that the state’s wildfire season does not typically peak for at least another couple of months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The largest complex wildfire in California’s history is currently burning in three counties (Mendocino, Lake and Colusa) and has already consumed more than 300,000 acres. A second fire (in Shasta and Trinity counties) has burned more than 200,000 acres. Both fires have\u00a0destroyed<\/a>hundreds of homes and commercial structures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The intensity and duration of wildfires in the western United States have grown substantially in the past generation as the result of climate change and other factors such as land use. Here’s the conclusion from the most recent National Climate Assessment, based on peer review of dozens of studies:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Recent decades have seen a profound increase in forest fire activity over the western United States and Alaska,”\u00a0wrote the NCA authors<\/a>. “The frequency of large wildfires is influenced by a complex combination of natural and human factors. Temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, wind speed, and vegetation (fuel density) are important aspects of the relationship between fire frequency and ecosystems.”<\/p>\n The unfortunate truth is that the massive wildfires raging in California are a “new normal” now. There will be more of these sorts of fires throughout the American west in the years and decades to come. There are lots of reasons why the historic, devastating California fires aren’t surprising, scientists have warned for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For instance, human-caused climate change is\u00a0increasing<\/a>\u00a0wildfire activity across western forests. Since 1970, temperatures in the American West\u00a0have increased<\/a>\u00a0by about twice the global average \u2013 and scientists have found a\u00a0direct link<\/a>\u00a0between global warming and increased heat extremes over the western United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Scientists say that the\u00a0effect of temperature<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and how dry the vegetation is \u2013 can matter more for wildfire risk than how much rain or snow fell the previous winter.\u00a0<\/sup>A warmer world has drier landscapes, and dry vegetation becomes fuel for fires making them more likely to spread farther and faster. From 1979 to 2015, climate change\u00a0accounts<\/a>\u00a0for 55 percent of observed increases in land surface dryness in western forests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are any number of obvious climate signals in the California fires. Higher temperatures, drier conditions, increased fuel availability and lengthening warm seasons \u2013 all linked to climate change \u2013 are increasing wildfire risk.\u00a0<\/sup>There has been a\u00a0fourfold increase<\/a>\u00a0in the number of large and long-duration fires in the American West since 1980. Meanwhile, the length of the fire season in the west has\u00a0increased<\/a>\u00a0by a whopping 2.5 months on average.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This dramatic change has the state’s politicians \u2013 and federal fire-fighting officials \u2013 genuinely worried. California is spending considerable amounts of money simply keeping the fires under control. In July, the state\u00a0spent more than $114 million<\/a>\u00a0fighting eight fires (including the three record-setting fires that are generating headlines).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [<\/p>\n SEE:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These Are the Top 5 Countries for Green Living<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But extreme heat and heatwaves \u2013 both of which are starting to plague California and the west more frequently now \u2013 are also clear climate signals. Average temperatures in the American West have\u00a0increased<\/a>\u00a0twice the global average since 1970. As the American West continues to heat up, conditions are primed for wildfires to ignite and spread.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All of this has firefighters in the region concerned about the immediate future. The Mendocino fire is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “It is extremely fast, extremely aggressive, extremely dangerous. Look how big it got, just in a matter of days.\u2026 Look how fast this Mendocino Complex went up in ranking. That doesn’t happen. That just doesn’t happen,” Scott McLean, a deputy chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are other ominous harbingers. California was\u00a0record warm in July 2018 at 79.9\u00b0F<\/a>. Death Valley had the hottest month on record observed anywhere at 108.1\u00b0F. California temperatures\u00a0were as much as 10\u00b0F higher<\/a>\u00a0than normal in the months leading up to the Mendocino Complex fires.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are more climate links to the deadly wildfires as well \u2013 involving complex factors like\u00a0vapor pressure deficits<\/a>, for instance \u2013 but the important point that matters is this: the massive, deadly fires we’re seeing in California right now can be explained by Earth’s changing climate system, scientists say. And the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Re Blog ” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Re Blog from<\/strong><\/span>:-<\/p>\n USNews\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/at-the-edge\/articles\/2018-08-14\/californias-wildfires-are-an-ominous-portent-of-things-to-come<\/a><\/p>\n Jeff Nesbit<\/a>,\u00a0Contributor<\/span><\/p>\n Jeff Nesbit was the National Science Foundation’s director of legislative and public affairs in<\/span>…\u00a0 READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”10″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” 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categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”light” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.56)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] THREE OF THE LARGEST\u00a0wildfires in California’s history are\u00a0all now 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