Sigh.
Fewer acres burned this year, but the need for fire mitigation and the dangers posed by the climate crisis have not vanished
In California, a state that’s grown accustomed to months of smoky skies, mass evacuations and the ever-present fear of wildfire, 2022 felt unusual.
Summer came and went, the weather warmed and the hillsides yellowed across the state, while residents held their breath. But a giant blaze or siege of simultaneous infernos – the events that have defined recent fire seasons – failed to appear.
By the time November rains brought relief to the drought-stricken landscape, slightly more than 360,000 acres had burned. That’s a strikingly low number, compared with the 2.2m that burned on average annually in California during the past five years, and only a fraction of the record 2020 season when more than 4.2m acres burned.
This is a function of being in a Mediterranean climate. Winter rains, spring dieback of plant life, dry summers full of tinder, that nervous bit Aug to Oct waiting for the winter rains again. This is just how this ecology works.
And:
How much burns depends upon how much tinder there is. Not – repeat not – how hot the summer is, but how wet the previous winter was. The more rain there is, the more plant growth, the more tinder.
The more winter drought there is the less there is a fire problem. And guess what? This simple fact – a well known one – simply is not mentioned at all in this long piece about fire risks in California.
Ms. Canon is ignorant of the subject she writes about.
“Ms. Canon is ignorant of the subject she writes about”.
Yes Tim.
Two types of people believe in man made global warming. Those ignorant of the facts (as in this case) and those earning in some manner from the delusion.
There’s something rather obvious here. If you have a bad fire season the following year won’t be. For the simple reason that what burnt last year won’t be available to burn this year. Certainly seems to apply where I live. I think the cycle seems to be about 3-4 years.
There is a difference between simple ignorance and disingenuity
These simple facts are drilled into schoolchildren all over the world, there are public information videos and broadcasts , poster campaigns etc
Attributing something that is empirically certain to some dodgy theory is just plain dishonest
Obama seems ignorant of how scientists should work.
In his view, Einstein should have been burned at the stake, because of Newton…
Still, perhaps it got him a few bob off his (shortly to be, he thinks, his sub aqua) luxurious property.
I didn’t realise he must have indulged in a bit of cultural appropriation and disguised himself as the Donald to afford it, but hey, maybe he pawned his Nobel.
Oh & climate change. The summer just passed was a particularly dry one for us. It was also a season without many serious fires. Those were about two years ago in a (nominally) wetter year. I think this year we went from April to end October without a drop. Some years we get summer downpours. About 3 years ago we got 4 inches in half an hour in August.
On this weather versus climate thing. Don’t know if California experiences these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_drop
The gota fria. We’re not really gota fria country here. It’s more up near Valencia where cold air can fall off Spain’s central plateau around Teruel & drop a thousand metres onto the wet moist coastal air. Oh boy! I’ve only been through one mild one. A tourist couple pulled off of the highway because they couldn’t see to drive & chose a dry river bed to park on. It was reckoned the wall of water hit them was 20ft high.
You try & fold in 500 litres per square metre into any sort of climate pattern.
Addolff,
That includes those making political capital rather than coin out of the supposed climate crisis, such as the commie bastards at Extinction Rebellion. Most of those who do ER’s dirty work fall into the ignorant useful idiots category.
California must be a contender for “the bit of the world that humans have ruined most quickly in the last century or so” prize.
“Ruined” is perhaps a bit journalistic but, by God, in 60 years the abolition of the smog in Southern California may be about the only pronounced improvement; many other desirable things have deteriorated without any sign that that may be reversed.
They’ve also abolished/outlawed clearing brush or other practices that used to prevent wildfires from raging out of control – got to be natural, dontcha see?
@Esteban
Well, the ‘natural’ way is a wildfire every now and again
Shame about all those expensive houses,but Gaia has to live
A large part of the problem is the wild land management is awful. You have the Greens saying, “You can’t do a controlled burn there because of the yellow bellied squirrel.” That is followed by the NIMBYs saying, “You couldn’t possibly do a burn this week because of our furry party celebrating the yellow bellied squirrel. Smoky chardonnay is so icky darling.”
Used to be that they’d napalm the hillsides from a helicopter during the wet months. Also bulldoze fire breaks along the ridges. (It is amazing how steep a hill you can bulldoze if you’re heading downhill.) Now these mitigations simply can’t be done.
Wasn’t that what worked best for Covid?
Same here every few years we have more than usual wildfires and the end is nigh brigade is out in force saying this is what it’s going to be like every year from now on and it’s all the fault of climate change.
After the last big wildfire it came out that the report into the previous big wildfire which was co-authored by the indigenous population and include recommendations based on their traditional land practices (including targeted burns and clearing) had been shelved and none of it had been enacted. So much for respecting traditional knowledge it seems
A genuine example of man made global warming – a report on some bloke in Spain setting 19 fires in the last two years. …..https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2022/12/19/firebug-man-arrested-accused-of-causing-19-forest-fires-in-spains-caceres/