On the two-year anniversary of the Rim Fire, the state confronts more vicious blazes.
A wildfire burning near Clearlake, Calif., earlier this month. Josh Edelson/AP
On August 17, 2013—two years ago today—a deer hunter near California’s Yosemite National Park ignored a campfire ban and burned trash from his dinner. The embers blew into dry brush, starting the third worst wildfire in the state’s history. All told, the Rim Fire, as it came to be called, burned 257,314 acres in and around Yosemite.
No wildfires of that scale have occurred since, but, thanks to drought and climate change, California is far from out of the woods. In fact, in 2015, 4,382 wildfires have already scorched a total of 117,960 acres, more than double the 5 year average for this time of year. Firefighters have finally controlled the largest two fires, in Northern California’s Jerusalem Valley, but not before the blazes razed nearly 100,000 acres.
Read the rest at Mother Jones.
from Climate Desk http://ift.tt/1Jgxgum
On the two-year anniversary of the Rim Fire, the state confronts more vicious blazes.
A wildfire burning near Clearlake, Calif., earlier this month. Josh Edelson/AP
On August 17, 2013—two years ago today—a deer hunter near California’s Yosemite National Park ignored a campfire ban and burned trash from his dinner. The embers blew into dry brush, starting the third worst wildfire in the state’s history. All told, the Rim Fire, as it came to be called, burned 257,314 acres in and around Yosemite.
No wildfires of that scale have occurred since, but, thanks to drought and climate change, California is far from out of the woods. In fact, in 2015, 4,382 wildfires have already scorched a total of 117,960 acres, more than double the 5 year average for this time of year. Firefighters have finally controlled the largest two fires, in Northern California’s Jerusalem Valley, but not before the blazes razed nearly 100,000 acres.
Read the rest at Mother Jones.
from Climate Desk http://ift.tt/1Jgxgum
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