A huge wildfire raging for the third day on Sunday in central California destroyed land of over 14,000 acres and displaced over 6,000 people from rural communities.
Governor of California, Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County after the fire forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Activating a state of emergency allows for additional resources to aid in response to the fire, a news release from his office said.
Smoke from the fire is expected to make its way to the Bay Area on Monday morning, according to forecasters. Skies are expected to be “hazy and slightly red/orange-tinted,” the weather service said.
Evacuation orders for neighborhoods threatened by the Agua Fire near Mariposa were lifted Tuesday afternoon, but not before flames destroyed two homes and another structure.
Cal Fire canceled the mandatory evacuations at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Highway 140, which had been closed west of Mariposa since Monday afternoon, was also reopened for traffic at limited speeds through the fire area.
Southern California forests are shrinking from wildfire and drought, study finds
Forest canopies from the mountains of San Diego to San Bernardino and up to Santa Barbara have sharply declined over the last four decades as a result of climate change-fueled wildfire and drought.
That’s according to a new study from the University of California Irvine that documented a loss of tree cover across the entire state — led by Southern California, where forests have shrunk by 14 percent since 1985.
Whereas other parts of state, such as in the Sierra Nevada and along the central and northern coasts, have seen forests rebound to some extent following wildfires and other disturbances, researchers found that trees failed to regrow at the same clip farther south, where the climate is hotter and drier.
What Causes California Wildfires
Wildfires can occur naturally and as a result of human activity, but three elements must be present for a wildfire to start:
• Fuel: Any flammable material surrounding a fire, which can come in the form of live or dead trees, dry vegetation and other organic matter;
• Air: An abundance of oxygen supply.
• Heat sources: to ignite and burn the fuel. This could take the form of lightning strikes or human sources such as campfires or cigarettes.
What is Prolonging California Wildfires?
The Answer is climate change.
California has been experiencing warmer temperatures and drier seasons, bringing on longer and more intense drought seasons as a result of the changing climate. The conditions that are needed to spark a wildfire are more easily met, thereby also increasing its severity once it starts. This is evident by the fact that more than half of the 20 largest fires in California history all took place in the last four years.
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