“Life-threatening” wildfires driven by 100-mph winds force evacuation of thousands near Boulder, Colorado

Smoke fills the air over the suburb of Superior, Colorado, as a wind-driven wildfire forced evacuations on 30 December 2021. Photo: Trevor Hughes

December 30, 2021

“Life-threatening” wildfires driven by 100-mph winds force evacuation of thousands near Boulder, Colorado

By Trevor Hughes and Doyle Rice 30 December 2021 BOULDER, Colorado (USA TODAY) – Several grass fires near Boulder, Colorado, forced thousands of people to flee their homes Thursday, officials said, as high winds knocked down live power lines. The National Weather Service called it a “life-threatening” situation, as one gust of 110 mph was […]

Map showing global land and ocean surface temperature anomaly for June 2020. On 14 December 2021, WMO announced verification of the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic, 38C (100F). The high temperatures across Siberia led to massive sea ice loss and played a major role in 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record, the WMO said. Averaged as a whole, the global land and ocean surface temperature for June 2020 was 0.92°C (1.66°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F), tying with 2015 as the third highest June temperature departure from average in the 141-year record. June 2020 marked the 44th consecutive June and the 426th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average. Nine of the 10 warmest Junes have occurred since 2010; the seven warmest Junes have occurred in the last seven years (2014–2020). Graphic: NCEI

December 29, 2021

Arctic heat record is like Mediterranean, says WMO – “The record is clearly indicative of warming across Siberia”

14 December 2021 (BBC News) – The highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic, 38C (100F), has been officially confirmed, sounding “alarm bells” over Earth’s changing climate. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday verified the record, reported in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June last year. The temperature was 18C higher than […]

Map showing the near-surface air temperature differences from the 1981-2010 average for January to September 2021. Data are from the ERA5 reanalysis product. Graphic: C3S / ECMWF

December 12, 2021

State of the Climate in 2021: Past seven years are on track to be the seven warmest on record – “Extreme events are the new norm”

GENEVA, 31 October 2021 (WMO) – Record atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and associated accumulated heat have propelled the planet into uncharted territory, with far-reaching repercussions for current and future generations, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The past seven years are on track to be the seven warmest on record, according to the provisional WMO […]

Aerial view of Lake Oroville, seen through a thick haze of smoke from California wildfires, on 20 August 2021. Lake Oroville has a surface area of 15,000 acres but is facing the worst crisis in its 52-year history. Photo: Action News Now

August 22, 2021

California mega-drought reduces Lake Oroville reservoir to historically low level – Hydroelectric plant shuts down – “We’re in uncharted territory”

OROVILLE, California, 20 August 2021 (Action News Now) – The reach of the drought emergency has a shocking look at as Lake Oroville drains to dirt. With a surface area of just over 15,000 acres – Lake Oroville provides water and electricity and impacts the local economy as recreation is big on this lake. California’s […]

Smoke and flames from the Dixie fire are seen from Wolf Creek Road west of Greenville, California, 4 August 2021. Photo: InciWeb

August 8, 2021

Dixie Fire grows to second largest in California history – “We need to acknowledge, just straight up, these are climate-induced wildfires”

By Tim Stelloh 8 August 2021 (NBC News) – The Dixie Fire became the second largest wildfire in California history Sunday as thousands of residents remained under evacuation orders and more than 10,000 buildings stood in the blaze’s path. The fire, which began July 14 and leveled much of the historic Sierra Nevada town of Greenville […]

A man watches the flames as wildfire approaches Kochyli beach near Limni village on the island of Evia, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Athens, Greece, late Friday, 6 August 2021. Wildfires raged uncontrolled through Greece and Turkey for yet another day Friday, forcing thousands to flee by land and sea, and killing a volunteer firefighter on the fringes of Athens in a huge forest blaze that threatened the Greek capital's most important national park. Photo: Thodoris Nikolaou / AP Photo

August 8, 2021

Thousands flee wildfires in Greece – Forest and homes burn during “nightmarish summer” of heatwave and drought – “For the next 40 years we will have no job, and in the winter, we are going to drown from the floods without the forests that were protecting us”

By Elena Becatoros, Demetris Nellas, and Michael Varaklas 8 August 2021 ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country’s second-largest island, isolating its northern part. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of […]

Cars and homes destroyed by the Dixie Fire line central Greenville on Thursday, 5 August 2021, in Plumas County, California. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

August 6, 2021

Wildfire explodes to third-largest in California history – “We’re seeing truly frightening fire behavior. We really are in uncharted territory.”

By Daisy Nguyen and Noah Berger 6 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A Northern California wildfire that is now the third-largest in state history had burned for weeks, mostly in remote wildland areas with few people, before it roared through the little mountain community of Greenville, driven by shifting winds and bone-dry vegetation. Eva […]

Flames consume a home on Highway 89 as the Dixie Fire tears through the Greenville community of Plumas County, California, on Wednesday, 4 August 2021. “We lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

August 5, 2021

Wildfire destroys California town – “We lost Greenville tonight” – 2021 fire season on track to be California’s worst ever

By Christopher Weber and Noah Berger 5 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday amid dangerous […]

Firefighters try to get a wildfire under control in Kirli village near the town of Manavgat, in Antalya province, Turkey, early Friday, 30 July 2021. Photo: AP Photo

August 1, 2021

Eight dead as wildfires sweep Turkey, force tourists to flee beach resorts – “The animals are on fire”

By Gul Tuysuz and Arwa Damon 1 August 2021 MANAVGAT, Turkey (CNN) – In the small village of Kacarlar, on Turkey’s southern coast, farmers are facing apocalyptic scenes as wildfires continue to sweep the country. “The animals are on fire,” 56-year-old resident, Muzeyyan Kacar, told CNN. “Everything is going to burn. Our land, our animals, […]

Time series of climate-related responses to anthropogenic drivers, 1990-2020. Out of the 31 tracked planetary vital signs, 18 were at new all-time record lows or highs in 2020. Data obtained before and after the publication of Ripple and colleagues (2020) are shown in gray and red respectively. For variables with relatively high variability, local regression trend lines are shown in black. The variables were measured at various frequencies (e.g., annual, monthly, weekly). The labels on the x-axis correspond to midpoints of years. Sources and additional details about each variable are provided in the supplemental material. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2021 / BioScience

July 31, 2021

World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency 2021 – Humans face untold suffering from “the consequences of unrelenting business as usual”

28 July 2021 (BioScience) – In 2019, Ripple and colleagues (2020) warned of untold suffering and declared a climate emergency together with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 153 countries. They presented graphs of planetary vital signs indicating very troubling trends, along with little progress by humanity to address climate change. On the basis of […]

Desdemona Despair

Category: forest fire