Wildfires Are Getting Weirder. Case in Point: Firenados.
Global warming is increasing their intensity. We need to get more creative to fight them.
The Park Fire in Northern California spread at a shocking 5,000 acres an hour.
Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images
“Weird” is the word of the hour in US politics. But it also does a good job of describing how natural disasters are behaving as the planet heats up and the weather turns freaky.
Consider wildfires. In its early days last week, the Park Fire in Northern California spread at a shocking 5,000 acres, or roughly 8 square miles, per hour to rapidly cover more ground than all of Los Angeles. Within 72 hours, it had reached 350,000 acres, an “extraordinary” rate of expansion given the density of the coniferous forest being consumed, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an interview. The fire is currently pushing 400,000 acres, the sixth-worst in state history, and may pick up speed again as the weather warms later this week.