2020 Western United States wildfire season

File:Bobcat Fire, Los Angeles, San Gabriel Mountains.jpg

A view of the wildfires in Los Angeles

In 2020, the Western United States experienced a series of major wildfires.

Intense August thunderstorms lit many wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington, followed in early September by additional ignitions across the West Coast.

Fanned by strong, gusty winds and fueled by hot, dry terrains, many of the fires exploded and coalesced into record-breaking, fire cloud producing,^[1] megafires,^[2] burning more than 4.6 million acres (1.9 million hectares) of land. It has killed at least 35 people, with many more still missing.^[3]

Climate change and poor forest management practices led to the severity of the wildfires.^[4]

2020 Western United States Wildfire Season Media

Fire regimes of United States vegetation
Year-to-date (through September 8, 2020) animation of extent and intensity of drought in the United States maintained by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
National Interagency Fire Center Geographic Area Coordination Centers
CZU lightning complex fire on Butano Ridge.jpg

The CZU Lightning Complex fires were sparked by lightning in mid-August
Cal Fire largest wildfires 2020.jpg

Six of the twenty largest wildfires in California history were part of the 2020 wildfire season. Five of the new wildfires ranking in the top 10 were all a part of the August 2020 lightning fires.
Carbon monoxide hotspots show locations of the wildfires
COVID-19 and wildfire evacuations in California - 2020.ogg

The Government of California's video about COVID-19 protocols in place at wildfire evacuation centers
President Trump Participates in a Briefing on Wildfires.webm

Secretary of California's Natural Resources Agency Wade Crowfoot urges President Trump to not ignore the science on climate change to which Trump responds "I don't think science knows, actually" and "It'll start getting cooler. You just watch."

References

↑ "California's Creek Fire Creates Its Own Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud". NASA. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
↑ Freedman, Andrew (September 11, 2020). Western wildfires: An 'unprecedented' climate change fueled event, experts say. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/11/western-wildfires-climate-change/. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
↑ "Historic Wildfires Rage in Western States" (in en-US). The New York Times. September 10, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331 . https://www.nytimes.com/article/wildfires-photos-california-oregon-washington-state.html. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
↑ Is climate change worsening California fires, or is it poor forest management? Both, experts say. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved: September 14, 2020.

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[1] "California's Creek Fire Creates Its Own Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud". NASA. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

[2] Freedman, Andrew (September 11, 2020). Western wildfires: An 'unprecedented' climate change fueled event, experts say. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/11/western-wildfires-climate-change/. Retrieved September 11, 2020.

[3] "Historic Wildfires Rage in Western States" (in en-US). The New York Times. September 10, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331 . https://www.nytimes.com/article/wildfires-photos-california-oregon-washington-state.html. Retrieved September 14, 2020.

[4] Is climate change worsening California fires, or is it poor forest management? Both, experts say. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved: September 14, 2020.

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