Climate Adaptation
Bone-Dry Nights Make California Fires Spread Faster Than Ever
- Wildfires accelerate as drought turns plants into ‘gasoline’
- Dryness has robbed environment of nighttime moisture relief
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A wildfire spreading at breakneck speed through hills in Northern California is a grim reminder that an unprecedented drought gripping the U.S. West is putting blazes on steroids.
It’s so dry that these parched areas aren’t getting the moisture relief that nighttime usually delivers, adding fuel to blazes like the Caldor fire east of Sacramento. Arid conditions helped expand that blaze eightfold in just a few hours overnight to nearly 54,000 acres (22,000 hectares) after scorching the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying homes and threatening lives.