Summertime and wildfires go hand in and in the Western US. Thoughts that this season would be a mild one following an “extremely wet winter and spring” has turned out to be quite the opposite. In fact the wet winter caused an increase growth in grass, which when dried in the summer, became fuel for fire… Fires have affected Oregon, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and California.
Officials have called it one of the top 5 worst fire seasons in state history. Montana alone has lost almost 1 million acres to to fire since the start of the summer season. Homes and buildings have also been burned and vacation resorts are empty. Residents have said smoke has been so thick that they couldn’t see across the street. Air quality is at “very unhealthy” levels according to air quality monitors in many affected communities. People are being forced to stay indoors as a result.
In fact smoke has been covering much of the area from the Cascades to the coast and ash is falling from the sky “like snow”. In some places smoke has been so thick that the sun is not visible in the browny-orange tinged sky.
Washington and Oregon have declared a state of emergency and there pedestrians can be seen covering their faces against the smoke and ash, and cars are having to drive with their lights on in the middle of the day.
The ongoing La Tuna bushfire caused Los Angeles to issue a state of emergency on Sunday to tackle the blaze. Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas called it the largest fire, by acreage, that the Los Angeles city area has ever seen.
NASA images show smoke stretching like cloud from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported on September 5 that 80 large fires were burning, and approximately 7.8 million acres of land had been burned in the United States in 2017.
Louise Carter
