Northern CA is on fire

[ghostsinthemachine]

56. Seven points on the inferno in Northern California

Seven points on the inferno in Northern California right now:
1. This is the worst we've seen. As I write, the confirmed death count is 24. Hundreds more are reported missing. And the official death toll will only count people who died in the blaze -- not the sick, elderly, and otherwise compromised pushed over the edge by the toxic, sooty air we've been breathing for days.
2. These are not wildfires per se. They are burning through vineyards, private lands, and suburban subdivisions. And the likely ignition source is not natural (see next point).
3. The most plausible explanation of how so many fires started at once comes from a Mercury News investigation by Paul Rogers: Sonoma County dispatchers sent fire crews to at least 10 different locations on Sunday night responding to calls of sparking wires and other electrical problems [shortly after the report came out, Pacific Gas and Electric no-showed on an interview they'd scheduled with us at KPFA].
4. The initial electrical damage happened during a night-time windstorm with gusts up to 79 miles per hour. Those are hurricane-force winds . . . hot, dry, hurricane-force winds driving fire instead of rain -- and driving it toward heavily-populated areas.
5. Such wind patterns aren't unheard of here. What has become more common in recent years, however, are warm nights that leave brush warm and dry, instead of cool and dew-moistened. Check Leah Rachel Swan 's reporting at SFgate for more.
6. Also connected to climate weirding: California had record-breaking rains this winter, followed by record-breaking heat this summer. The rains helped grow more brush--"fuel" in the parlance of fire officials. The heat dried it into tinder. (And the preceding five years of extreme drought also left California's forests full of dead and drying trees.)
7. All but lost in the disaster coverage (and the NFL taunting, and the nuclear drama): this is also the week that Scott Pruitt, President Trump's pick to head the EPA, announced a rollback of the most significant Obama-era rules intended to curb climate change, the Clean Power Plan. It wasn't adequate, but it was something -- and now it's gone. Brian Edwards-Tiekert