Fire Season Update
August 17. 2020
Hi Friends,
I’ve been waiting. I got used to the waiting as a firefighter, but as a writer and researcher it feels very different. When I was a hotshot I waited for fire season because fire season was made of cash. The more intense, the more grueling, the more money I made. Most fire seasons I worked over 1000 hours of overtime, but there was one season that was slower- 2003. That year we spent a lot of time on base, trimming the chinaberry trees that always sprouted along the chain link fence, sharpening and resharpening our tools. Busy work. That’s what we called it.
Busy work typically happens every year in different regions, meaning that in one year the Southwest can blow up while the Pacific Northwest remains dormant, or Yellowstone can pop a few little fires while Yosemite mimics a certain type of Armageddon. Agencies count on this variability. If too many regions catch fire at ones, resources can become strained. When resources become strained, budgets expand and suck funds from other important areas, like fuel mitigation, ecological research, and prescribed fire, all of which are important to the health of forests (and inevitably contribute to more predictable wildfires).
Working in the aughts, there were always “bad” fire seasons. I worked in So. Cal and Nor. Cal and Oregon and Colorado and even spent a season in Alaska. During that time large fires happened, but it was predictable that every other year or so would be kind of mild. That hasn’t been the case for the past few years. ‘16, ‘17, and ‘18 were all bad seasons. Last year there was a respite in the United States, but I know it wouldn’t last.
(The picture above was taken by Noah Berger for the Associated Press)
Like I said, I was waiting. I knew it would happen again this year, and It’s happening. But before I get all hyperbolic, I want you to know that I’m not saying wildfires are bad. News outlets like to use words that frame fires as something unnatural and unprecedented. Let’s be real: fires have always been part of life in the United States, since before it was the United States. In many geographical areas we’ve put ourselves at risk by building flammable structures in what’s called the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), and these flammable structure? They burn. This causes problems for us. A lot of our issues with fire could be (and in many areas are being) addressed by programs like Firewise And TREX. I wrote a couple pieces about how to update houses to be more fire resistant and what kinds of landscaping will resist burning.
Fires have always been part of life in the United States, since before we called it the United States.
Fires aren’t bad, but this fire season could be bad. Many communities haven’t prepared themselves for more intense fire seasons, and I predicted these back in 2017, when the La Tuna Fire ignited in early September. Back then I was like, oh shit. Fires this bad in early September, in So. Cal? I’d worked down there. I know about the Santa Ana’s and how the season doesn’t really get pumping until late September, and can last until November (or, now, even December).
The Santa Ana’s are a hot wind exhaled by the dry lungs of the Great Basin. It further dries brush and trees already cured by summer heat. It’s a Foehn wind and So. Cal isn’t the only place these hot winds happen, or cause fires, but they’re the most predictable.
Needless to say, the Santa Ana’s haven’t started yet, but the fires have. There was recently a Fire Tornado, not to be confused with a fire whirl, which is more commonplace. The first fire tornado Recorded in the United States Was seen at the Carr Fire in 2018. These phenomena are becoming more common, and are incredibly dangerous and volatile.
There are fires in Colorado, most of which aren’t out of the ordinary, except for the Pine Gulch Fire, which is now the fourth largest fire in the state’s history (bear in mind that the top ten largest fires have occurred after the year 2000). News outlets are already using the buzz word “unprecedented” to describe these fires, but they’re not. Yet.
There was lighting in the Bay Area, from San Francisco to Point Reyes and inland. Lightning storms are especially uncommon in the Bay Area and the East Bay. There were also rolling blackouts. The lightning strikes caused many fires, some of which will inevitably be difficult to contain in the heat. Death Valley recorded the presumed highest temperature on earth in nearly a century.
California is in a drought. Has it ever come out of one? The band of high pressure that often signals California’s summer drought has been persistent in overstaying its welcome. California has a Mediterranean climate, which means summers are always dry, but because of rising temperatures due to climate change the snow melts earlier, leaving soils parched for longer. This, in turn, dries out fuels that will burn earlier In the season than expected.
It’s a season to watch. I’m currently in Port Angeles, WA, where it’s hotter than usual (but cooler than Seattle). I smell occasional wildfire smoke from a small fire near Lake Crescent, in Olympic National Park.
Because fire season has picked up, I’m going to be sending out these newsletters as often as I can. They’ll include updates on fires as well as historical data, research, and they’ll parse out the reasons behind why fires are reported they way they are. I’m writing for laypeople and firefighters alike. If you have data to add or correct, please don’t hesitate to respond to this email.
I want you to read two great pieces about women in fire. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t had such a terrible experience on my first hotshot crew. I can’t wonder for too long, but I can embrace the women who were hotshots before me (written by Amanda Monthei for Outside Magazine) and the women who are out there now (written by Alex Potter for National Geographic.
I see so many incredible women in the fire world, and I’m starting to think that the idea that there aren’t many women interested in the job is one that was constructed by men.
See you soon,
Stacy