Fires are getting bigger and more homes are burning each year. Firefighters are having to change tactics when it comes to the most destructive fires, but why? Jennifer Blach, Ph.D., just released a new study in the journal, Science, and her findings point to a new type of fire that is the culprit for all this destruction.Having grown up in Southern California and observed lots of fires, I knew the answer was wind before Maiya May mentioned it. Fires with high winds were always the most dangerous. They've become even more so since I moved to Michigan 35 years ago, as I wrote in California's Camp and Woolsey fires air pollution seen from space and felt on ground.
In this episode, we dive into this groundbreaking new study to learn why fires are getting more dangerous to humans and what we can do about it. Plus we have never-before-seen animations from NASA that show us exactly how these new fires behave. So tune in to learn about the future of fires and how to protect yourself and your home as fires change.
I found out last week that the home where I grew up was in a mandatory evacuation zone. In the 25 years I lived there, that never happened. In addition, I don't recall my family ever telling me that had happened during the three decades I've lived in Michigan until this past week.*I followed up in Massive California fires and two tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico, two climate-fueled weather disasters.
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*I case anyone is wondering, the house is O.K. It was more than a mile from the edge of the fire at its greatest extent.
I saw the damage up close in January 2019, when my mom and I drove from her California house to the sea and back. Once we hit the burnt area, we didn't leave it until we got to Malibu; the fire burned all the way to the coast. I was astounded. It's one thing to watch the news reports; it's another to see it up close and in person.PBS Terra mentioned the Camp Fire being driven by wind. Strong winds also blew the Woolsey Fire all the way to the sea.
I have another PBS Terra video to share, so stay tuned for it tomorrow.
A disquieting video. Here in Oregon we've had several very bad wildfires in the last few years, with entire small towns destroyed. I'm beginning to wonder whether moving out of Portland to a smaller place would actually be a good idea. I've seen estimates of a 15% chance that a subduction-zone quake (which would destroy Portland) happening in the next fifty years, but wildfires happen every year, and a major city like this would at least be better defended against those.
ReplyDeleteYou would have to move quite a ways inland to escape the effects of a magnitude 9 earthquake. Bend may not be fat enough. But you would definitely be safer from wildfire in a large city. Bend might just be large enough. Lahaina certainly wasn't.
DeleteFar, not fat. Now I'm wondering if I accidentally revealed a truth making that mistake.
DeleteThanks for linking to this entry and welcome to all of your readers who came here from your blog!
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