Of Past 16 Summers, 11 Have Featured 12 Or More Megafires Of At Least 100,000 Acres In US West

[hatrack]

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From the Rockies to the Pacific, the last 16 years have brought an astonishing 11 summers with more than a dozen so-called mega-fires, defined as a single burn engulfing more than 100,000 acres. More to the point of our anxieties, about 120 million of us are living on some 200 million acres considered to be at high risk of burning. We’re living our lives, as will our children and our grandchildren, in a land of flames.

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Faster melting snowpacks and increased warmth in the fall have grown the fire season by a staggering 75 days since 1972. The increased heat, along with profound drought have routinely stressed trees — killing many outright or leaving them vulnerable to lethal beetle infestations. In 2016 alone, it’s estimated that more than 60 million trees died in California.

And now, the deluded Trump administration has yanked us out of the Paris climate accord and begun the process of opening more Western lands, seas and forests to oil and coal development. This, when we should be doing all we can to end our carbon-emitting ways.

A different but equally dangerous delusion infects America’s worst wildfire zones. According to the International Assn. of Wildland Fire, only about 3% of the 70,000 communities in those zones have taken steps to make their neighborhoods “fire-wise.” Simple measures such as creating non-flammable 5-foot landscape zones around homes, cleaning gutters and covering attic vents with wire mesh to block blowing embers can make a difference. County governments in wildfire areas should mandate at least 30 feet between houses to help prevent house-to-house ignition, and the installation of adequate on-site water supplies for firefighters.

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http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ferguson-fire-season-20170709-story.html

[Warpy]

1. Fires this year haven't been bad so far

but they will be if Texas doesn't take its air back so the fucking monsoons can start.

It's been nice to be able to see the mountains. Usually in fire season they're obscured by smoke.

[hatrack]

2. Warpy, are you in AZ? Can't remember, but IIRC it's somewhere out west . . .

If so, stay cool (if possible!)

[CountAllVotes]

3. Burning away in the Sierra foothills right now!

OROVILLE, Butte County — Just days after California’s burgeoning wildfire season plundered the farm of Danny Lazzarini and Andrew Seidman, the couple were back to work, picking peaches amid the blackened hillsides.

The four homes they lived in with their ranch hands, as well as nearly all their farming equipment, were reduced to rubble in the Wall Fire, which tore through the Sierra foothills about 70 miles north of Sacramento last weekend. But facing debt to pay off the property they purchased a little over a year ago, the two were eager to cash in on whatever fruit remained.

“It’s the peach season, and the peaches are still ripening,” Seidman said as he looked out over a green orchard that had been spared the fate of most of his 27 acres. “You’d be a fool to turn your back on this.”
More on wildfires

Lazzarini, 39, and Seidman, 41, chose an unfortunate time to start an organic farming business in the Oroville area. Nowhere have the extremes of California’s weather been as relentless of late.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Anguish-in-Sierra-foothills-as-dangerous-fire-11290593.php

Doesn't sound like this situation will improve anytime soon. It is over 100 degrees in these parts of California right now!

& recommend.