#widfires

Excerpt from this story from ABC News:

A wildfire burning for a week in Northern California continued to grow out of control, one of about a dozen big blazes in the drought-stricken state that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

There was zero containment Sunday of the Caldor Fire, which had charred nearly 154 square miles (399 square kilometers) of trees and brush in the northern Sierra Nevada after breaking out Aug. 14. The cause was under investigation.

Multiple large wildfires have incinerated at least 700 homes, many in and around the Sierra Nevada communities of Greenville and Grizzly Flats. About 13,000 residences remained under threat in communities tucked away in scenic forests.

The fires have burned roughly 2,300 square miles (6,000 square kilometers) and have sent smoke as far as the East Coast. They were burning in grass, brush and forest that is exceptionally dry from two years of drought likely exacerbated by climate change.

Nine national forests in California have been closed because of the fire threat.

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Waves of fire swept through the Sierra Nevada forest, churning up smoke and leaving charred vegetation behind — all under the watchful eye of a heavy-duty drone. Instruments around the perimeter snatched up samples of the singed particles spewing into the air.

Prescribed burns, an age-old practice that rids forests of the small trees, brush and other matter than can fuel wildfires, are getting a 21st-century upgrade.

With climate change parching the land and increasing wildfire hazards, scientists are beginning to use cutting-edge technology and computer modeling to make controlled, low-intensity burns safer, more effective and less disruptive to nearby communities.

“Fire has made us civilized, but we still don’t understand it fully,” said Tirtha Banerjee of the University of California, Irvine, as he watched a tall heap of dead tree limbs go up in flames.

As useful as prescribed burns can be for maintaining forests, they are tough to carry out — costly, labor-intensive, contingent on narrowing windows of favorable weather. And even well-planned burns can turn disastrous, as when a fire started by the United States Forest Service this spring was transformed by gusting winds into New Mexico’s largest wildfire on record.

Scientists think we can do better. Several teams recently converged at Blodgett Forest Research Station northeast of Sacramento, an area thick with towering Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and incense cedar. A planned burn at Blodgett was a precious opportunity to collect data in the field, and the researchers packed carloads of gear including GoPro cameras, drone-mounted sensors for mapping the terrain in minute detail, a sonic anemometer for measuring wind and an assortment of machines that collected airborne particles.

"Redding, California (population 90,000), saw almost half of its residents evacuated."

Redding, CA (Sputnik) – Driven by extreme winds, a deadly wildfire in California described by local firefighters as a ‘monster’ rapidly expanded in size by two-thirds overnight, sending an urban population into a panicked evacuation.

The city of Redding, California (population 90,000), saw almost half of its residents evacuated as high winds whipped the deadly Carr Fire across a 125-sq-mile area.

I don't think I've ever seen anything better :D