Tag Archive for: Wildfires

2020 May Be The Hottest Year On Record. Here’s The Damage It Did

/in , /by /Cap Radioby Rebecca Hersher and Lauren Sommer

With just a few weeks left, 2020 is in a dead-heat tie for the hottest year on record. But whether it claims the top spot misses the point, climate scientists say. There is no shortage of disquieting statistics about what is happening to the Earth. The hottest decade on record is coming to a close, with the last five years being the hottest since 1880. 2020 is just two-hundredths of a degree cooler than 2016, the hottest year ever recorded.

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For The West’s Drinking Water, Wildfire Concerns Linger Long After Smoke Clears

/in , /by /KNPR (Nevada Public Radio) by Luke Runyon

For many communities in the West, the water that flows out of kitchen faucets and bathroom showerheads starts high up in the mountains, as snowpack tucked under canopies of spruce and pine trees.

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California’s Ancient Redwoods Face New Challenge from Wildfires and Warming Climate

/in , /by /NPRby Eric Westervelt

After this year’s historic wildfires, California’s oldest state park — Big Basin Redwoods — looks more like a logging village than an iconic hiking and camping mecca.

There’s a near constant buzz of chainsaws. Rumblings from trucks and logging skidders fill the air as crews busily cut charred, fallen trees and chop down “hazard trees” rangers worry will topple on to the park’s roadways.

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Opinion: California Must Bypass Water Politics and Work Toward Solutions For Our Thirsty State

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Robbie Hunter

California’s water wars are epic. They’ve inspired Hollywood productions and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism. Water has been the source of both great wealth and great poverty in California. A fellow Irishman, James Mulholland, who was born around the corner from where I was and even baptized in the same church, delivered water to the City of Los Angeles with what was described as “chicanery, subterfuge … and a strategy of lies.”

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Santa Ana Winds Expected in San Diego County Mountains, Valleys this Week

/in , /by /KPBS-FM/TVby City News Service

Santa Ana winds will return amid dry conditions this week, significantly raising the risk of wildfires in the San Diego County mountains and western valleys, according to the National Weather Service.

Moderate strength winds were expected Tuesday in the mountains, forecasters said. Winds out of the east were expected to be around 15 mph, with gusts potentially reaching 30 mph Tuesday afternoon.

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Water District Adopts Defensible Space Ordinance, Accepts Auditing Report

/in , /by /Ramona Sentinel (The San Diego Union-Tribune)by Julie Gallant

The Ramona Municipal Water District Board of Directors at its Nov. 10 meeting unanimously agreed to adopt the county’s defensible space for fire protection ordinance and accepted an auditing report that gives the district a favorable “unmodified” rating.

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Opinion: Our Future Rests on Climate Action

/in , , /by /CalMattrsby Eleni Kounalakis

California is on fire. And the wildfires we’ve seen already this year are not just alarming – they’re a forewarning. In 2020 alone, record temperatures and tens of thousands of dry lightning strikes led our state to experience five of its six largest wildfires in recorded history.

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Wildfires Emerge as Threat to Water Quantity Across Parched West

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

As the largest wildfire in Colorado history spread beyond 200,000 acres, Mark Kempton began to worry it would incinerate so much of the Fort Collins watershed that the city would be unable to guarantee water to its residents.

When the spring rains come next year, ash and debris will pour down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and clog the city’s water intake on the Cache la Poudre River, said Kempton, interim director of Fort Collins Utilities, which oversees the water supply for Colorado’s fourth-largest city.

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Unseasonably Warm Weather Forecast for Wednesday and Thursday

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

Unseasonably warm weather is expected Wednesday and Thursday throughout San Diego County, then a cold front will arrive on Friday and bring a slight chance of rain in most of the region this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

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La Niña: Moderate to Strong Climate Event Predicted this Year, Meaning Possibly Drier Conditions in SoCal

/in , , /by /ABC7

Global climate experts are predicting a moderate to strong La Niña weather event this year, meaning a stormy season for most parts of the world but possibly drier-than-normal conditions in Southern California. A La Niña usually means a more active Atlantic hurricane season with potentially stronger storms.

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