We had them in S CA and I left there in '91. A smell in the air and ash on cars, over by the 495 and toward the Pacific, when the fires were in the distant hills.
I wonder if we forget, because so many are more easily contained or managed. As we had a fire where I lived, I said earlier, you never lose the alert when you smell it or see the ash.
A lot of whether we notice does depend on the winds.
Right, but how distant? The Camp Fire is over 200 miles from here, with mountain ranges in the way, and we still had unbreathable air for over a week. When you lived in Socal, did you have unbreathable air for days from fires 200 miles away? I don’t think you did.
My point wasn’t that ours were as bad. It’s in response to frequent comments that folks don’t remember other big fires.
And the air in S CA is lousy lots of the time. No, not like what you’re experiencing. But if the winds had blown smoke inland, the Bay Area would have experienced different.
I’m as horrified as anyone else.
They closed schools here for a fire that was over 200 miles away behind a mountain range. This kind of fire is unprecedented, and it has nothing to do with the population of the area where the fire occurred. We’re in the midst of a climate disaster, and the sooner we acknowledge that this is not what normal used to be, the better off we’ll be.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/7/17661096/california-wildfires-2018-camp-woolsey-climate-change
And all those additional people want…power…from PG&E SoCal Edison etc.
Nobody is saying that forest management had nothing to do with the Camp Fire. But “ground so dry in November that it is pulling moisture from the air” has not been a part of the natural part of this system until recently. Global climate change is making the California rainy season shorter. That means the high winds in November fan flames.
Last Monday it was oddly hazy here in New Jersey. I didn’t know till the next day that it was from the CA fires. This has NOTHING to do with population growth. The sooner we all accept that, the better.
Were there a lot of trees killed by the bark beetle in the area of the Paradise fire?
It doesn’t seem like the bark beetle was a huge problem in Paradise:https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd509276.pdf
All of these natural disasters seem to be getting worse. Where I am in coastal Virginia,there has definitely been an increase in hurricane threat, flooding in the last decade. Cities everywhere are struggling to keep up with what seems to be getting to be the new normal depending on location- more floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires. Very sad to hear about the loss of life and property in California.
Yes, HI has been threatened by increasing #s of hurricane, often in very close succession or sometimes simultaneously. This is happening much more than previously in my many decades living here.
Several areas in southern Wisconsin were flooded this summer. The nature preserve behind my house sustained serious damage. All told, I think this has been the third rainiest year ever in Wisconsin.
Bark beetle infestations are exacerbated by… you guessed it… climate change, in two ways. The beetles should be kept in check by cold winters that freeze the larvae, but winters are warmer now and more larvae are surviving. Also, they go for trees that are drought-stressed; climate change is causing more droughts and thus more drought-stressed trees.
I wouldn’t call these California fires ‘natural disasters’. They were clearly man made disasters caused by the sheer negligence of the power companies, PG & E and Southern California Edison. Given their history of neglect and spending rate payers money on things like lobbying and executive pay raises instead of safety measures like burying the lines, these fires are more akin to arson.
Many lawsuits have already been filed for the deaths and property losses. The losses need to come out of the pockets of the shareholders and bondholders, not the ratepayers.
Events like the horrific Camp Fire have many causes. The fire might not have happened if PGE had cleared undergrowth under the power lines. There is no guarantee of this, because 60 mph winds can blow a spark more than 12 feet, and because we don’t KNOW that a PGE device was the source of the spark. The Camp Fire also probably wouldn’t have happened, or wouldn’t have been as bad, without global climate change.
We call hurricanes Sandy, Maria and Harvey natural disasters, even though they were made more likely and exacerbated by climate change and bad human decisions.
We also call the Camp Fire a natural disaster. Because it is one.
Well I disagree. This is no more a natural disaster than Fukishima or Bhopal or when the kid in Oregon set off firecrackers and started the blaze last year in Oregon. Equipment failures starting fires are not natural. Lightning is natural.
These equipment issues have been going on for years and the fires they have caused are responsible for many deaths. But the companies do almost nothing except lobby that they should be protected from the consequences of their negligence.
Just curious, how were hurricanes more likely by "bad human decisions . " ? Many of the places now being hit by hurricanes , flooding, were not hit at all or very infrequently until fairly recently… Many communities are being hit harder in the last decade and are having to look at ways to deal with the inevitable- climate change, sea level rise.
Hurricane frequency is still an open question I believe, but severity has definitely been changed by human activity. Not just building in places that are stupid to build, but global warming raising the temperature of the oceans has caused hurricanes to carry more water and travel further distances at devastating strength. It has also extended the hurricane season to have warmer ocean temps.
TatinG, I understand your anger, and I agree PG&E should be held responsible to a large extent, and California must change its laws to adapt to a future with more fires – because there will be more fires. But the severity of the Paradise blaze was exacerbated by people living in areas where they shouldn’t, by poor planning – not enough roads and escape routes – partly due to locals’ refusal to pay higher taxes to build those roads and escape routes. This was a disaster waiting to happen. And we’ll ALL pay for it, even those of us who live far away from Paradise, in higher insurance premiums and worse air quality.
Maybe they should just cut the power in CA? Problem solved.