The 2021 California Wildfire Season is a series of ongoing wildfires that burn across the state of California. The wildfires were sparked by nearly 12,000 lightning strikes in a dry California terrain that hasn’t seen much rain. California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency back on August 18th.
A few months back when the 2020 wildfire season started, the state faced extreme wildfires, severe or moderate drought, and degrading air quality, and tens of thousands of California residents were required and ordered to evacuate as fires ravaged acres with its potential fire threat to life and/or property.
According to CAL FIRE, a fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in California, wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend. Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation more susceptible to severe wildfire. The length of the fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days across the Sierras and seems to correspond with an increase in the extent of forest fires across the state.
As of today, an overview of all 2021 fire season incidents, including those managed by CAL FIRE and other partner agencies states an estimate of 1,671 acres burned, 453 incidents, 0 confirmed fatalities, and 0 structures damaged or destroyed.
In order to ensure safety for all, Ready for Wild Fire and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) set out evacuation guidelines, an emergency checklist and important safety measures for individuals. This entails steps to follow to protect yourself and family from a wildfire, how to evacuate safely when inside or outside your home and how to stay healthy when returning home after a wildfire.
The Governor’s Forest Management Task Force has a comprehension strategy that necessitated an outline to reduce wildfire risk, improve health of forest and wildlands. The California’s wildfire and forest resilience action plan can be found here.
"Fires in California" by Vlastula is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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