By Jennifer Calfas 16 August 2018 (TiME) – The rare, apocalyptic fire tornado that ravaged a Northern California neighborhood last month trapped and killed a firefighter while “violently” flinging debris and embers at two bulldozer operators, according to new details released on the stunning fire event.The fire tornado — which was about 1,000 feet in […]
By Mark Chediak 13 August 2018 (Bloomberg) – It was California’s biggest fire yet. In late July and August, wildfires devastated an area north of San Francisco far bigger than New York City, destroying more than 100 homes and injuring 2 fire fighters. It’s just one in a rash of fast-spreading blazes that have killed […]
By Lisa Cox 15 August 2018 SYDNEY (The Guardian) – At first the smoke on the horizon “didn’t look like anything major,” says Joe Mercieca of that day in 2013. But then the wind picked up. His house in the Blue Mountains, an hour and a half out of Sydney, was soon surrounded by the […]
15 August 2018 (CBC News) – It’s going to be another suffocating day in Alberta as smoke from wildfires in B.C. drifts east. Much of the province is, once again, under a blanket of smoke and haze — and there is little relief in the forecast. Environment Canada expects the haze will last for several […]
By Clare Hennig 15 August 2018 (CBC News) – Nearly 600 fires are burning across British Columbia, covering the sky in flame-coloured haze and blanketing the air with smoke.A provincial state of emergency has been declared.Dozens of evacuation orders and alerts are in effect in the north and central regions, affecting more than 20,000 people.In […]
By Imogen Birchard and John McGill 15 August 2018(CBC Radio) – Trevor Chapman was forced to abandon his trailer park in Fraser Lake, B.C., as the wildfires around his home grew.On Wednesday, the British Columbia government declared a state of emergency. Over 560 fires are burning across the province and thousands of people are under […]
By Cliff Mass 15 August 2018 (Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog) – Air quality in western Washington is very poor right now.Incredibly, in central Puget Sound it is probably the worst in the nearly two-decade observing record of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency for any time of the year.I have been here a […]
By Alex Sosnowski 14 August 2018 (AccuWeather) – A couple of very tough months are ahead for the wildfire season and firefighting efforts in the western United States, especially California.Approximately 110 large wildfires are burning across the U.S., and most of these fires are burning in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. […]
Dr. Jeff Masters 8 August 2018 (Weather Underground) – Smoke from the raging fires in California has brought dangerously high levels of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5, particles less than 2.5 microns or 0.0001 inch in diameter) to portions of California, Oregon, and Nevada since late July, and wildfire smoke now covers more than half of […]
By Bob Henson 8 August 2018 (Weather Underground) – July was California’s its hottest month in 124 years of recordkeeping, according to NOAA’s monthly summary of U.S. climate released Wednesday. For the contiguous U.S. as a whole, it was the 11th hottest July on record, with almost every state coming in warmer than average. The […]
