Update: In the past four days the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon has burned another two-and-a-half San Francisco's worth of forest and continues to produce its own weather + lightning.
It's not expected to be fully contained until late November.
Update: Smoke from the Bootleg Fire and other western wildfires has now spread across the entire North American continent and is now swirling across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.
The #BootlegFire is now 394,407 acres (13x the city of San Francisco) and 32% contained.
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Today’s air quality in New York City was the worst in more than 14 years. The concentration of fine particulate matter was seven times the @WHO's healthy limit.
The cause? A plume of smoke spanning the entire continent.
The worst of the smoke stretched from western Canada to Minnesota to New England. Nearly every major city in the Northeast had dangerously unhealthy levels of air quality.
Today's temperature of 130.0°F at Death Valley is the fourth-highest temperature ever recorded anywhere on Earth. All three higher temperatures are disputed.
If confirmed by @WMO, it would be the highest reliably-measured temperature in human history.
To be relevant in 2021, coverage of weather and climate has to be grounded in truth. It has to be trustworthy. It has to be personal. It has to meet people where they are.
The main truth of our time is the climate emergency & that we need systemic change to thrive this century.
Any media service — especially a weather service — not grounded in that truth is not going to do well.
Viewers are smart. We know when we're being lied to, we know when key facts are missing.
That's why leading with climate is the only way weather coverage is going to work.
So, the heat wave in Canada was so strong that it created extreme wildfire conditions, and when the fires started the heat plumes were so strong they created severe thunderstorms, which are so strong they're creating lightning that's sparking new fires