When homes are densely packed in alignment with the direction of strong fire-season winds, it is nearly almost impossible to cut enough brush to make the homes defensible. Fire burns from house to house, no longer a 'brush fire'.
A neighborhood in the path of #PallisadesFire. 1/4 Also, a lack of easements to access the back of residential lots makes it nearly impossible to do tree work or other major vegetation management which could lower wildfire hazards. 2/4

There is an interesting story to tell about land conservation, forestry, global carbon markets, and lands threatened by tonight's growth on the #ShellyFire, (captured by @ALERTCalifornia . 23:00 - 7/6/24) 1/x The #ShellyFire is pushing east out of the Marble Mountains into a large tract of private timberland owned by @EFMInvest - a 'Climate Smart' private equity management group (subsidiary of Ecotrust) (purple on the map). Previously the land was held by an Investment company called Timbervest. 2/x

Just got some remarkable video from toe of the landslide caused by PG&E's Butte Creek Canal collapse last week. Thousands of yards of dirt and rock dammed up Butte Creek. This entire gravel bar is new. Sediment threatens endangered salmon which begin spawning in next 60 days. /1 The landslide went all the way across the creek and created a dam which backed up the creek. When it overtopped, it lead to the initial huge pulse of orange sediment seen downstream the next morning. /2

So #wildfire season is finally starting to take off in Northern California. Here is a thread on why it has taken this long, and what it takes for us to have large fires in California: #CaFires #CaWx #WildlandFirefighting 1/ California has so many fire suppression resources it is hard for fires to escape initial attack unless at least one of these criteria is met:
Multiple starts across a wide area
Above average winds
Topographic alignment
Extreme temperatures
Poor visibility for aircraft 2/

The large #wildfires in #Chile are spreading quickly across large areas of non-native plantations of radiata pine and eucalyptus, many of them planted by foreigners during a dictatorship. These maps show recent MODIS heat detections on top of mapping of plantations (purple). 1/x Over 3 million acres of plantations were established in this region in the 80s and 90s. As seen in the American West, during severe weather, conifer tree farms burn like the sun. Even-aged forestry is turning out to be an ecological disaster, all over the globe. 2/x

First cloud-free #Sentinel2 satellite images in a month dropped yesterday. Great to check out snow levels, reservoirs, and wet wet wet in the Butte Basin/Lower Sacramento River. First image compares Colusa area now vs 12/15/2022. #Geography #RemoteSensing #CaWx #CaStorm 1/x Imagery paints a picture of soil types. Along the River, coarser soils settle quickly once floodwaters slow down. Blue areas have more clay, because super-fine soil particles can stay suspended longer, travel farther in slow-moving floodwaters. Orchards prefer coarse soils. 2/x

It's been two years since the #campfire burned here in Butte County. This thread is a narrative about the fire with satellite images I created of the fire at the peak of it's rampage, and aerial photos we flew. This image shows the long-range spotting which spread the fire. 1/x The fire started in the Feather River Canyon, near Pulga, and raced up Flea Valley Creek. Once the fire reached the rim of the Canyon, it rained embers all over the Concow Basin. It raced thru heavy fuels in the Concow area, which still had tall dead brush from fires in 2008. 2/x