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Smoke Prompts Sacramento County Health Alert: Limit Outdoor Activity Through Friday

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Hannah Holzer

The smoky air blanketing the region from wildfires prompted a statement Monday from Sacramento County air quality and health officials urging residents to take precautions and limit outdoor activities through Friday. If you smell or see smoke, officials said, here’s what you should do: Minimize outdoor activities, even if you’re healthy. In particular, children, the elderly and people with respiratory or heart conditions should avoid exposure when air quality is poor.

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Trump Says California’s Water Policies Are Making The Wildfires Worse. Is He Right?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

President Donald Trump recently broke his silence on California’s wildfire disasters by blaming the state’s environmental and water laws, saying the state has exacerbated its fire problems by letting large amounts of water flow out to the Pacific Ocean. Trump’s remarks, which he posted in a pair of tweets Sunday and Monday, drew immediate criticism from fire experts in the state.

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Huge Orange County Wildfire Visible From San Diego Area

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

A large and rapidly growing wildfire that erupted Monday afternoon in the Holy Jim Canyon area of Orange County is producing a plume that’s visible from parts of San Diego County, according to the National Weather Service. The fire has so far burned more than 1,000 acres at a spot in the Cleveland National Forest, nor far from Corona, the Orange County Fire Authority said.

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California Wildfires Roar Into ‘Uncharted Territory’

/in , /by /USA Today (McLean, Va.)by Jim Schultz, Chelcey Adami and John Bacon

The surging wildfires raging across Northern California represent a “new normal” and the state must be prepared to spend billions of dollars dousing, containing and trying to curb them in the future, Gov. Jerry Brown said. Brown, speaking at a news conference Wednesday, said the state’s exploding population combined with climate change has conspired to create ripe conditions for the prodigious blazes. “Nature is very powerful and we are not on the side of nature,” Brown said. “Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We are in uncharted territory.”

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California’s Gov. Brown: Wildfires Are Evidence Of Changing Climate ‘In Real Time’

/in , /by /National Public Radioby Scott Neuman

California Gov. Jerry Brown says his state is in “uncharted territory” with the current slew of intense wildfires and he warns that climate change has made the situation “part of our ordinary experience.” “[The] predictions that I see, the more serious predictions of warming and fires to occur later in the century, 2040 or 2050, they’re now occurring in real time,” Brown said at a news conference on Wednesday in Sacramento.

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What’s Different About California’s Fires This Year?

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Henry Fountain

California is burning, with at least 16 big wildfires statewide. The largest, in and around the northern city of Redding, has killed at least six people and burned more than a thousand homes and other structures. Fires are nothing new in the state this time of year. It’s fire season, after all, as it is elsewhere in the West. But something feels different this time, perhaps because, following the Santa Rosa fire last October, this is the second year in a row in which fire has destroyed large parts of a city.

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Hot July Is Fueling California’s Summer Wildfires

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Lisa M. Krieger

The calendar says it’s the first of August. But an unforgiving early wave of heat means that California’s landscape feels as dry as September, igniting a deadly wildfire season up and down the state. Hot and dry as a powder keg, recent weather has accelerated the normal drying of western landscapes, turning vegetation into kindling, say weather experts. Even nights are warm. “Fuels are really really dry. It’s closer to what we should get by late summer or early fall,” said professor Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Lab at San Jose State University.

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The Common Thread In California’s Wildfires: Heat Like The State Has Never Seen

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II and Ruben Vives

The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town Thursday. It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed.

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How Climate Change Is Making Disasters Like The Carr Fire More Likely

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Angela Fritz

Firefighters are waging war against 17 wildfires that cover 200,000 acres in California this week. Front-line dispatches suggest that, at least at times, they’ve lost the battle. The bodies of two children were found under a wet blanket with the remains of their great-grandmother hovering over them. Three firefighters and one bulldozer operator are dead. More than 700 homes have burned to the ground. Crews have struggled, at least in part, because they have never seen fires behave like this before.

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BLOG: How Wildfires Affect California’s Water Supply

/in , /by /Public Policy Institute of California (San Francisco)by Henry McCann, Jeffrey Mount and Claudia Herbert

Summer marks the traditional beginning of California’s fire season, although the warming climate has stretched the season considerably. Until the winter rains arrive, wildfires will burn forests and grasslands throughout the state. Since January 1, about 3,700 fires have consumed more than 111,000 acres of land—outpacing 2017, the most destructive and deadly fire season in state history. While public safety and economic costs deserve and receive a great deal of attention, wildfires also have consequences for the management of water—including the amount and quality of supply, and the potential for flooding.

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