![]() ![]() ![]() The western United States has seen an expansion of drought conditions over the first half of 2020. While wildfires can start at the whim of a lightning bolt, conditions conducive to rapid wildfire growth play out over a long timescale. Redwoods are naturally fire-resistant, but even they have limits. The largest of those, the CZU Lightning fire, has burned over 84,000 acres of coastal forests, including California’s famed redwoods. As of August 24, three other fires have at least burned through an area the size of Washington, DC. Images courtesy Sentinel Online/European Space Agency.Īnd these were just the biggest two! There are hundreds of wildfires of various degrees of severity occurring across the state. ![]() Burned areas appear in reddish brown and vegetation appears green. Sentinel satellite image of the LNU Lightning Complex Fire north of San Francisco in northern California on August 25, 2020, in infrared-enhanced false color. But in 2020, firefighters must fight both simultaneously as the fires burn-only 50-60% contained as of August 30-within 100 miles of the Bay Area. In any given year, one of these fires would present a monumental challenge. The LNU Lightning Complex fire has torn through California wine country, killing five people and destroying 1,198 structures. The two largest current fires, which constitute the second and third-largest wildfires on record for California, are the LNU Lightning complex fire to the north of San Francisco and the SCU Lightning Complex fire to the south. ![]() Over the second half of August, 1.42 million acres of land has burned, larger than the state of Delaware. An area the size of Rhode Island burned in less than a fortnight. How rare is it for such a massive acreage to burn so quickly? Cal Fire, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for California, says it’s unprecedented in a “single fire siege.” In just nine days, more than three times the average acreage was burned in California than in the “normal” wildfire season in the state. Red outlines indicate areas where satellite sensors detected the heat signature of active fires. His research interests at Scripps Oceanography include landscape and seascape evolution in response to tectonic deformation, sea-level fluctuations, climate, neotectonics, and geohazards.NASA MODIS Terra satellite image of wildfires and smoke across California on August 21, 2020. in geology and geophysics from Columbia University and worked as an associate research scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, MA before joining UC San Diego in 2000. Driscoll has also appeared in articles published by The Associated Press, The New York Times, CBS News, The Los Angeles Times, KGTV, KPBS and other notable news outlets.ĭriscoll received his Ph.D. He has published more than 120 manuscripts in high impact peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature Geoscience, Geology, and the Journal of Geophysical Research on subjects ranging from earthquake hazards to devastating wildfires., He has received multiple awards during his career, including the Heezen and Storke Awards for excellence in research and UC San Diego’s inaugural Undergraduate Teaching Award. Neal Driscoll is the principal investigator of the ALERTCalifornia program at the University of California San Diego, where he is a professor of geology and geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.ĭriscoll’s background in natural hazard research traces back more than 35 years. ![]()
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