The winter’s deadly and devastating floods are a distant memory for many Californians. Now, summer dangers, fueled by climate change, are top of mind.
Across the U.S., wildfires have grown larger and more frequent since 2000. But California fires can quickly escalate to megafires or gigifires (fires that cover more than a million acres) in part because they have become more unpredictable, writes CalMatters’ environmental reporter Julie Cart.
There are several reasons for this: The West recently experienced the driest period in more than a millennium. About a third of coastal summer fog, which prevents big fires from scorching California’s coastal redwood forests, has vanished. And rising temperatures keep flames burning overnight, crucial hours when firefighters typically toil to get ahead of fires.
Julie reports that Cal Fire crews attempt to outmaneuver these erratic blazes with fire behaviorists, who use information from satellites, military flights, drones, radar and AI models to try and predict future fire movements. Any data point can be crucial — from wind force and direction to the shape and height of slopes — to manage conflagrations.
These advances in technology could not come soon enough. Though the state’s three-year drought is over, Cal Fire officials warn that last winter’s unprecedented rain has resulted in lush vegetation that can serve as kindling for summer fires. And ultimately, trying to predict something so capricious as fire — no matter the...
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