Wild Fires

The climate science behind wildfires: why are they getting worse

[1] The Guardian Jonathan Watts, Jamie Macwhirter, Meital Miselevich and Nikhita Chulani Fri 20 Aug 2021

The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.

But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains

Freakish Arctic Fires Alarmingly Intensify

by ROBERT HUNZIKER Aug 12th 2020 [2] Counterpunch

According to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: “What has been surprising is the rapid increase in the scale and intensity of the fires through July, largely driven by a large cluster of active fires in the northern Sakha Republic.” (Source: Kasha Patel, NASA/NOAA Satellites Observe Surprisingly Rapid Increase in Scale and Intensity of Fires in Siberia, SciTechDaily, August 9, 2020)

Siberian Fires Have Released a Record Amount of Carbon This Year

[3]

As a result of the widespread fire activity, the region has sent carbon streaming into the atmosphere. Mark Parrington, a senior scientist studying fires with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, tweeted that June 2020 saw the highest level of carbon emissions from Siberian fires on record, with an estimated 59 megatons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. That broke the record set [checks notes] last year amid a catastrophic fire season and is roughly equivalent to the entire annual emissions of Portugal.

STUDY BOLSTERS CASE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS DRIVING MANY CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

[4] AUG100 7/15/2019

The study notes that average summer temperatures in the state have risen 1.80 degrees Celsius (3.25 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1896, with three-quarters of that increase occurring since the early 1970s. From 1972 to 2018, the area burned annually has shot up fivefold, fueled mainly by a more than eightfold spike in summer forest fires. The researchers say the summer forest-fire increases are driven by a simple mechanism: when air heats up even modestly, it causes more moisture to evaporate from soils and vegetation. The result: fires start more easily, and can spread faster and farther. During the fall, and in non-forested areas, different dynamics may be at work and the results are less clear; but the researchers project that climate-driven aridity is likely to play a growing role there as well.

'Unprecedented' Wildfires Burned Across the Arctic Circle In June

[5]

More than 100 wildfires in the Arctic Circle released 50 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in June. They're still burning.

Another Greenland Fire

[6]

The map above shows air temperatures at 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) above the ground on July 10, 2019. The near real-time temperature data come from the GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) model, which assimilates observations of air temperature, moisture, pressure, and wind speeds from satellites, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. The darkest red areas in western Greenland had temperatures approaching 20°C (68°F). The normal daily high in Sarfannguit in July is 10°C (51°F).

Greenland is on fire, again.

[7]

In southwest Greenland, the normally semi-arid region has experienced increasing temperatures and rainfall. As a result, increased vegetation in the rapidly changing landscape now has a sufficient fuel supply that can trigger wildfires by either natural or human-caused activity.

The fire, discovered July 10, 2019, by NASA satellites, is the second wildfire to break out in the same vicinity since July of 2017. Like the 2017 fires, the current fire was preceded by warming temperatures and dry conditions.

Alaska Chokes on Wildfires as Heat Waves Dry Out the Arctic

[8]

Several studies, as well as ongoing satellite monitoring, show that fires are spreading farther north into the Arctic, burning more intensely and starting earlier in the year, in line with what climate models have long suggested would happen as sea ice dwindles and ocean and air temperatures rise.

Wildfire Smoke Associated with more ER Visits

[9]

DALLAS, April 11, 2018 — Smoke from wildfires may send people – particularly seniors – to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) with heart, stroke-related complaints, according to new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Are Devastating Wildfires a New Normal? Its Actually Worse than that Climate Scientist Says

[10]

"A new normal makes it sound like we've arrived in a new position and that's where we're going to be," said Michael Mann, a professor of atmospheric science and the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. "But if we continue to burn fossil fuels and put carbon pollution into the atmosphere, we are going to continue to warm the surface of the Earth. We're going to get worse and worse droughts and heat waves and superstorms and floods and wildfires."

'A prisoner of environment': is it time to leave the American west?

[11]

Maricela Ruelas is a manager at a vineyard in Medford, Oregon. She trims, harvests – whatever needs doing. This year, she has done much of that work in a face mask.
Wildfire smoke has plagued her and her fellow workers nearly continuously for “a couple of months”, she said through a translator, leading to pounding headaches. “It was horrible, horrible this year.”