(Granted, California is large and has several different climate zones. If I get to it I'll look at some specific weather stations.) (But I probably won't get to it.)
Overall the continental US had its 11th warmest July (NOAA). Its 30-year warming trend is +0.28 °C/dec (+0.51 °F/dec).
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NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) has been cancelled, assumedly by the White House. But it hadn't been funded by Congress. It cost $10 M/yr. A scientist said, "If you cannot measure emissions reductions, you cannot be confident that countries are adhering to the [Paris] agreement." But how accurately can emissions be measured from space? I'm dubious.
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Climate Researchers Warn Only Hope For Humanity Now Lies In Possibility They Making All Of This Up (The Onion)
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A satellite picture of smoke over USA48, via the HERR model. Via Eric Snodgrass's weekly discussion of Pacific NW weather. (I don't know what the units of the scale are.)
This site gives up to date info on California fires https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2018/fire-tracker/
ReplyDeleteDavid, are you close to the fires?
ReplyDeleteI am in Menlo Park, about 30 miles south of SF. No fire is nearby, although the smoke affects us some.
ReplyDeleteHey, I've been to Menlo Park.
ReplyDeleteAre the fires big news in the San Fran area, even though they don't threaten that it?
Sure they're big news here. And, deservedly so IMHO. The amount of destruction is huge. The total damage from wildfires this year will probably be comparable to a major earthquake.
ReplyDeleteCheers
I have read opinions as to the cause of the large number of wild fires in the last 2 years and what can be done to reduce the number. The dumbest "cause" was Trump's blaming of allowing certain fresh water to flow into the ocean. Other supposed causes include
ReplyDelete-- higher temperatures due to global warming
-- higher American temperatures due to local trends
-- dryer than normal weather during last few years (whether or not caused by climate change)
-- lack of forest thinning
-- lack of other forest management, such as fire breaks, controlled burns
-- reduced spending on forest management
I am not certain that all these things are even true, let alone just how significant each of them is. I would say that few, if any, of the media stories I read seem to deal intelligently and knowledgeably with the question. I hope that somewhere there are experts without an axe to grind bringing their knowledge to bear on the matter of how to ameliorate wild fires.
Cheers
Looks like Canada has it worse (not a contest, but... click on modeled fires and it looks like BC is one big BBQ) http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/viewer/run/ops/BSC-CA-01/2018081509
ReplyDeleteHere's the current forecast: http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/viewer/run/ops/BSC-CA-01/current/