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California governor Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency in California for wildfires that are raging in the state. Amidst an ongoing heat wave and drought, wildfires have become a major threat in the Golden State. Last year and the year before that, wildfires rampaged throughout the Californian wilderness, killing wildlife and threatening towns and cities.
This year is much the same, sadly. Since it remains so dry and hot in California into the late summer, it only takes a single spark or errant lightning bolt to spark a forest fire. Thanks to the dry underbrush of the Californian wilderness, this can quickly spread into a wildfire. Regions in Northern California are under evacuation orders currently as the flames represent a “pressing and immediate” threat to life.
Evacuation orders are in effect for several Northern Californian counties, including Napa and Sonoma. The cities of San Mateo and Santa Cruz were also under evacuation orders Wednesday morning. The pressing threat of the flames led to a chaotic and apocalyptic scene in the region Wednesday morning. Residents scrambling to leave the region backed up traffic on freeways bound out of Northern California.
One fire, the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, has burned over 32,000 acres in Northern California. Homes in Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties have all been burned by the raging flames. However, that’s not the only fire tearing through California. Over a dozen such blazes dot the landscape of the Golden State, threatening to grow and overtake towns and cities.
An unrelenting and unprecedented heat wave in California is partly fueling the flames. Recently, Death Valley, CA recorded the hottest temperature on Earth in at least 100 years. Researchers recorded a ground temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, easily besting previous records using modern weather monitoring tools.
Heat domes are what drive these heat waves. Heat domes are high-pressure systems that push air towards the ground, where the air then compresses and heats up. These domes are likely to become more common—and intense—as climate change worsens. In short, it’s time to stock up on the best bottled water.
Climate change is threatening to alter many people’s way of life as it intensifies. Wildfires in California are one aspect of the issue, though far from the only one. Melting ice caps could lead to rising sea levels. This, in turn, could displace millions of people in the coming decades.
