September heatwave in California: Sunday temperatures expected to hit 43°C (110F) in much of the state, 49°C (121F) in Palm Springs, and 51°C (124F) in Furnace Creek, Death Valley. Wildfire risk would seem high once more.
New rapidly growing wildfire in California: 125,000 acres = 500 km².
Narrow escape
Over 14,000(!) firefighters battling California's many wildfires now.
Massive wave of wildfires in California (and Oregon):
This wildfire, north of Sacramento, traveled over 40 km in one day!
And this one, in southern Oregon, already forced 80,000 people to evacuate.
This is what’s left of Mill City, Oregon (population 2,000).
The Creek fire, one of many, grew to 570 km2 in just 4 days, and is still 0% contained. Expected containment date: 15 October(!). Tough times for @CAL_FIRE
Early afternoon in Stayton, northern Oregon:
Dark morning in California:
Cameras often adjust pictures to correct for darkness. This gives a good impression.
Smoke from California's wildfires now stretching across the US, from the Pacific Ocean to the NE Atlantic coast.
Good morning, San Francisco.
US National Weather Service, Bay Area: The smoke situation in California is "beyond the scope of our models".
While the @nytimes practices #ClimateSilence...
.. Barack Obama uses clear language.
Combined satellite views show the extent of the wildfires in California and Oregon, and their smoke field over the Pacific Ocean.
This is incredible: 4 of California’s largest wildfires on record are burning right now! Three from the August wave still burning, one recent fire jumping into the top-10 too now.
(252,000 acres = 1,000 km2)
San Francisco, Wednesday morning.
Via @Weather_West !
Massive fires in Oregon too; the current wave already burned 3,700 km² there!
.. and what that looks like on the ground:
. @latimes is clear about climate change as a driving factor behind California's massive wildfire wave:
The August Complex fire has now become California's largest on record (1900 km² burnt), pushing the 2018 Mendocino fire into 2nd place.
And several fires merging have created the 1,000 km² Elkhorn fire, not too far away.
So the situation got even more extreme: half of California's top-10 largest wildfires in 90 years of records is burning right now!
Those 5 ongoing Californian wildfires alone have now already burned 1.7 million acres (almost 7,000 km2). That’s 1.6% of California, and 1/6 of the total area of the Netherlands!
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