🔥 #wildfires ravaging the U.S. West Coast are sending smoke between continents and up to record heights in the atmosphere. This animation shows the spread of organic carbon since Aug. 13. (Thread - 1/8)
This week the smoke has travelled thousands of miles east, turning skies from New York to Washington D.C. hazy and reaching as far as the skies above Britain. On Sep. 16 a thick plume was over Iceland. (2/8)
At ground level, he blanket of ash and smoke made the region’s air quality among the worst in the world. 📸Downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 10, 2020. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (3/8)
Smoke from the fires also reached altitudes previously unseen in the U.S. When extreme fires generate enough heat, it is propelled high into the atmosphere creating thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus. Example: 🛰️ Image from NOAA/RAMMB (4/8)
This happened on Sept. 7, when smoke rose to a height of more than 15km, pushing into the stratosphere. NASA’s CALIPSO satellite happened to pass directly over the smoke that day measuring this cross section of data. (5/8)
The fire-induced clouds essentially can create their own weather systems. The clouds form from the smoke plume, as the fire’s intense heat warms the surrounding air, causing it to rise rapidly, drawing in cooler air. (6/8)
The warm updrafts can pull in so much air that strong winds develop at ground level, fanning the fire further. On rare occasions, these erratic surface winds can swirl into a fire tornado. 📸 Aug. 16, Loyalton Fire, California. Image courtesy Katelynn Hewlett/via REUTERS. (7/8)
To read the full story explaining how #wildfires ravaging the U.S. West Coast are sending #smoke between continents and up to record heights in the atmosphere go here 👉 tmsnrt.rs/2RzMdl9
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🇪🇺 Europe is once again the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of every 100 new infections last reported around the world about 51 were from countries in Europe, which is recording a million new infections about every 4 days. graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavi…
36 countries in Europe are still at or near the peak of their infection curve and 35 out of the 48 countries @Reuters tracks are seeing their daily reported infection numbers rise.
The countries reporting the largest numbers of new infections are 🇫🇷 France, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom & 🇮🇹 Italy.
1/9 How do vaccines protect us against the coronavirus? Once infected, our bodies react and try to fight off the virus, often making us very sick in the process. Vaccines allow humans to build immunity without experiencing illness. tmsnrt.rs/3mI9rDL
2/ These are the six main types of vaccines in the works to build immunity against the coronavirus:
3/ A live attenuated virus is constructed by mutating the original virus. The mutation creates a weaker version that cannot cause significant harm to the body.
As the world approaches 30 million reported #coronavirus infections, @Reuters and @ReutersGraphics are launching a new site and extending our commitment to tracking the toll of the global outbreak across 240 countries and territories.
It's been 260 days since the first cases of #COVID19 were reported in Wuhan, China. Since then more than 930,000 people have died around the world.
Tracking the virus is as important as ever as some countries confront a second wave of infections. Others, still their first.
This new site is dedicated to identifying the latest trends and highlighting which countries are reporting increases in infections as soon as we can detect them in the latest data.
Firefighters have been battling some of the largest fires 🔥in California’s history in recent weeks. A fleet of specially equipped firefighting aircraft have been helping fire crews on the ground. Example from Aug. 22 👇
(THREAD)
#CalFire has its own fleet of aircraft that can reach most fires within about 20 minutes. The three main components are tactical planes, airtankers and helicopters. All have specific roles but work together as a unit to combat fires.
Tactical aircraft are used in aerial command and control roles in fighting wildfires, providing coordination with commanders on the ground and other aircraft in the sky. Most of Cal Fire’s tactical planes are North American Rockwell OV-10 aircraft.
New COVID-19 cases are rising in Midwestern states partly due to outbreaks linked to colleges and last month’s Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota.
New cases in the United States fell slightly, which marked the sixth straight week of declines, but the number of new infections still averaged more than 41,000 a day.
Last week’s total of U.S. COVID-19 deaths was down 7% from the previous week but still averaged 900 deaths a day.
The rate of weekly COVID-19 deaths rose 2% last week, while new cases declined for a fourth week in a row, according to a Reuters tally of state and county reports. tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR
The United States posted 360,000 new COVID-19 cases last week, down from a peak of over 468,000 in mid-July. The U.S. has more cases and deaths than any other country and accounts for a quarter of the world’s 21 million cases.
Louisiana led last week’s decline with cases falling 44%, followed by Arkansas, down 41%, and South Carolina, down 30%. Cases in California rose 32%, partly due to a backlog of tests.