California fires are burning faster, hotter, more intensely — and getting harder to fight
LA TimesThe fires have burned more than 140,000 acres, from soaring mountains along the California-Nevada border to forest north of Mt. “All else equal, drier vegetation means more intense fires,” Swain said, noting that “intensity” refers both to the heat of a fire and to its behavior. “That dryness,” Tingley added, “just creates these tinderbox conditions.” So far this year, many of the worst behaviors of wildfire have become a reality — as when crews battling the Sugar fire were set back substantially after a wind-whipped ember jumped containment lines and ignited a new blaze. Swain said the “pyro-vortex” over the Sugar fire was one example of fires creating their own weather patterns, which can also include strong winds, tornadoes and massive smoke plumes. And while much of the state’s extreme fire behavior can be attributed to the drought, rising global temperatures characterized by more frequent extreme heat waves are also a significant factor, experts said.