Heat waves and “flash droughts” fuel intense fires in California, Oregon and Canada.
By Kiley Price, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
In western North America, wildfire season is in full swing—and well on its way toward setting records. Over the past two weeks, infernos have been tearing through parts of California, Oregon and Canada, leaving scorched trails in their wake.
Though these regions are no strangers to fire, experts say the pace at which some of the blazes have intensified is shocking. As thousands flee under evacuation orders, firefighters are flooding in to help, but they’re struggling to contain the fires amidst a unique climate-fueled cocktail of conditions.
Big Fires Everywhere: Across the western U.S. and Canada, a series of heat waves, droughts and strong winds boosting the growth of fires this season. The Park Fire in Northern California, ignited last week by an arsonist, is one example.
Extreme heat during June and July dried out vegetation in the area, providing fuel for the fire to rapidly expand. As of Friday, the blaze had burned roughly 178,000 acres. Just a few days later, the fire has engulfed more than 380,000 acres, covering an area nearly double the size of New York City. The Park Fire is already the fifth-largest wildfire in California’s history and could keep raging for weeks or even months, experts say.
“It’s the record-breaking hot and dry weather that’s singed the fuels and made them as ready to burn as they could possibly be,” Park Williams, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, told The New York Times. These types of conditions are becoming more common with climate change, which is fueling longer and more active fire seasons, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Similar scenes are playing out in parts of Oregon and Canada. Experts say a “flash drought” triggered by heat waves transformed trees, shrubs and greenery throughout eastern and central Oregon into kindling for lightning-ignited wildfires. More than 1 million acres have burned so far across the state—quadruple the amount of charred land compared to last year.
In Alberta, Canada, an intense wildfire has destroyed at least a third of the town of Jasper, a popular tourist getaway for its proximity to Jasper National Park. Officials say the fire tearing through the park is the worst in a century.
The blaze was strengthened by a fire-generated thunderstorm known as a pyrocumulonimbus system, which can produce hail, strong winds, lightning, tornadoes and massive smoke plumes. Some of the infernos in California and Oregon have also created their very own fire tornadoes (and yes, they look as terrifying as they sound).
Charred Towns: The intense nature of these fires has made them extremely difficult to fight. In California, around 4,800 firefighters have been deployed to the Park Fire, but only around 14 percent is contained so far. Four counties are under evacuation orders as the blaze scorches residents’ cars, homes and belongings, CBS News reports. Firefighters have had better luck containing the large Durkee fire in eastern Oregon, with a little help from a recent rainstorm, but not before it burned through swaths of ranchland.
Meanwhile, in Canada, much of Jasper has been reduced to charred piles of wood and rubble. Jasper’s mayor, Richard Ireland, said the destruction is “almost beyond comprehension” and could have long-term consequences for the town’s economy, which depends on tourism. About 20,000 tourists and 5,000 residents fled the idyllic mountain resort town last week.
It’s not just Canada’s economy that could suffer in the face of wildfire-related destruction: A forthcoming report by economic analysis group IMPLAN finds that wildfires could cost the U.S. economy nearly $90 billion this year, Heatmap News reports.
As climate change supercharges wildfires, officials are working on new strategies to tame them. In June, NOAA tested two experimental tools that use satellites and artificial intelligence to more rapidly identify fires and communicate information to land managers so they can deploy forces to fight the blazes before they spread.
To prevent megafires from happening in the first place, experts are advocating for more prescribed burns, smaller fires that could help clear out some of the dry brush that fuels the flames. This practice has been used for centuries by Indigenous peoples, who have been crucial to wildfire management efforts throughout the Western U.S. and Canada.
