By Dennis Romero
California has not suffered a megafire this year that has destroyed an area of six figures of hectares.
Yet vast fires across the United States have combined to make 2022 one of the most fiery years of the past decade.
The heat wave, which is expected to produce sweltering conditions and triple-digit temperatures in parts of the Southeast, Northwest and some regions in between, may contribute to triggering or increasing more fires.
[Evacuations ordered for fire near Yosemite National Park]
As of Tuesday, fires had consumed 5.6 million acres nationwide, roughly double the area burned last year to date and triple the fire footprint to date in 2020, according to the National Interagency Center for Fire. Fires.
The 84 large fires in the country that were still active on Tuesday are responsible for most of the hectares - more than three million - burned so far this year.
Only two other years in the past decade have resulted in acreage losses above five million as of July 26: 2017, at 5.2 million acres, and 2015, at 5.6 million.
By the end of the year, 2015 had burned 10.13 million acres, the most since 1960, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center.
The years 2020 and 2017 ranked second and third.
Federal officials warned Tuesday of fertile fire conditions from coast to coast and reminded that human action is the most common ignition for wildfires.
"As record temperatures and very dry fuels continue to be recorded in many states, wildland firefighters need everyone to do their part to prevent wildfires," the National Interagency Fire Center said in a statement.
[A fire that started with a lawnmower destroys at least nine houses near Dallas]
More than 34,000 of the more than 38,000 wildfires in the US to date were caused by human action, according to the center.
Firefighters are battling the Oak Fire in the Jerseydale community of Mariposa County, California on Monday. Noah Berger / AP
Federal officials have their eyes on major fires across the West, including two new fires in Montana, as well as Idaho's Moose Fire, which has burned more than 37,000 acres since it began July 17.
California's largest fire this year, the 18,000-acre Mariposa County Oak Fire, was 26% contained Tuesday as firefighters slowed southward movement and focused on the fire's march toward the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
[High temperatures, fires and possible blackouts: the heat wave that sweeps the US]
Despite knocking out 41 structures so far, the fire hasn't shown in recent days the explosive growth it did in its first 24 hours, when it went from a 60-acre wildfire on Friday to a 12,000-acre caldera on Saturday.
His plume could be seen from space.
Federal, state and local firefighters and support crews, numbering more than 400, have drawn a line to stop the Oak Fire from advancing on Footman Ridge, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west-southwest of Oakwood National Park. Yosemite, officials said.
"It's very hot, it's extremely rugged terrain, but no one has given up," Justin Macomb, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection section chief for the region, explained in a video briefing Tuesday.
Yet California, which has lived through a string of six-figure fires for a number of years, has so far avoided fires as large as those in recent history, including the 2020 August Complex Fire, single-handedly responsible for scorching over a million acres.
A helicopter drops water on the Oak Fire in Mariposa County, Calif., on Sunday, July 24, 2022.Noah Berger/AP
It's not clear why this year has been less incendiary in the state.
In general, the years of fires have worsened in tandem with climate change and the continued warming of the planet.
A 2009 analysis published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management concluded that most of the world regions it examined will soon "face moderate fire potential throughout the year" and not just for a few months in the summer and fall.
The idea is consistent with California-like fire seasons in recent years in Washington, Oregon and New Mexico.
Just as the climate crisis has helped produce most of the 10 hottest years on the planet since the start of the 2010s, it has also helped produce ideal fire temperatures and the ideal fuel in the ground: dry, brittle. and ready for the exothermic reaction.
The 10 largest wildfires in California have also occurred since 2010.
With the possibility of record temperatures and lightning forecast in parts of the Pacific Northwest this week, authorities in Oregon and Washington are asking residents to be vigilant.
The Washington State Department of Transportation tweeted Tuesday: "Don't park in tall grass," lest your car start a fire.
The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center for Wildfires, based in Portland, Oregon, said in a statement Tuesday: “Southwest, central and eastern Oregon [areas] will have elevated fire potential during the week. due to the hot and dry climate.
It warned of the potential “high risk of significant new fires”.
