Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFire Conditions Worse As KNP Complex Burns Its Way Through Giant Sequoia Forest
Hot and dry weather on Sunday added to the challenges facing California firefighters battling to keep flames from driving further into a grove of ancient sequoias, where the base of the worlds tallest tree has been wrapped in protective foil. Fire officials warned that stronger winds were contributing to critical fire conditions in the area of the KNP Complex, two lightning-sparked fires that merged on the western side of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a red flag warning through Sunday, saying gusts and lower humidity could create conditions for rapid wildfire spread.
Historic drought tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight and has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the west much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
More than 7,000 wildfires in California this year have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and torched well over 3,000 sq miles of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
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Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young trees to grow. But the extraordinary intensity of fires fueled by climate change can overwhelm the trees. Once you get fire burning inside the tree, that will result in mortality, said Jon Wallace, operations section chief for the KNP Complex. The fires have burned into several groves containing trees as tall as 200ft and 2,000 years old.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/19/california-wildfires-sequoias-threat-worlds-tallest-tree-general-sherman
Liberty Belle
(9,528 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)Nictuku
(3,570 posts)As of 5 am tomorrow, PG&e will be turning off my electricity to avoid wildfires (I live in the Napa area). They do this when they expect high winds. We also are now in a Red Flag situation (very dry air conditions). Pray for California and its beautiful Sequoias tomorrow!
So far this year, I haven't been evacuated, nor any fires near me. Last year around this time we were evacuated for 10 days.