2020 California wildfires

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.5 million residents across a total area of about 163,696 square miles, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area.

The 2020 California wildfire season is a series of ongoing wildfires that are burning across the state of California. As of September 14, 2020, a total of 7,718 fires have burned 3,451,428 acres (1,396,743 ha), more than 3% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California history.

Six fires this year are on the top 20 list of largest fires in state history, including the largest: the August Complex Fire, burning 736 square miles across five counties, Glenn, Mendocino, Lake, Tehama and Trinity.

Because of the widespread fires, the U.S. Forest Service announced a temporary closure of all 18 national forests in the state.

The intensity of the fires has been boosted by drying and heating for human-induced climate change in combination with poor forest fire management leading to a build-up of fuel. 

 

Wildfire location on MAP

California wildfire from space

The recent satellite and aerial imagery below show California blanketed in dense smoke as flames ignite mountain, chaparral, and desert regions. These landscapes exist within a changing fire regime, stoked by a relentlessly warming climate.

Take the view of California wildfires

Reason behind California wildfires

Climate change:

Leading climate scientists argue that climate change increases the temperature of wildfires in California, the risk for drought, and potentially also the frequency of such events.

Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense.

Climate change from human activity nearly doubled the area that burned in forest fires in the American West between 1984 and 2015, according to a study in 2016 by scientists at Columbia University and the University of Idaho.

Lightning: 

In mid-August, a series of freak summer storms blasted California with more than 14,000 lightning strikes and almost no rain. More than one-third of all the acres that have burned this year came from that lightning. 

Dry winters:

California receive less rainfall (below normal rainfall).

When California has dry winters, moisture levels dry up earlier in the summer in grasses, shrubs and trees. Fires start more easily and spread faster.

Orange sky in city San Francisco

 

San Francisco golden gate bridge

                                                                             Before wildfires 

                                        

 After wildfires

California wildfires affects AIR QUALITY of USA and Canada

 

Destruction caused by California wildfires

California, dubbed the Lightning Complex fires.  As of September 8, CalFire reported that 10 wildfires were burning across California. The largest, the SCU Lightning Complex, located in five counties in northern California near San Francisco, had burned about 397,000 acres and was 94 percent contained.

Second largest fire on record in the state and has destroyed 224 residential, commercial and other structures. The LNU Lightning Complex was nearly as large, burning more than 375,000 acres over four counties including Napa and Sonoma. By September 8 it was 91 percent contained. It has destroyed about 1,500 structures.

The CZU Lightning fire burned about 86,000 acres in two counties and was 81 percent contained by September 8. In total, over 1 million acres had burned and California was under a state of emergency. About 3,500 structures have been damaged or destroyed. 

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