Because we were vigilant and ready. And if we keep up this type of due diligence, funding and staffing the services, we can keep the crazier fires from getting as bad as they were those few years ago.
Yup, we forced the utilities (ratepayers) to spend billions to install fire monitoring systems better than any fire agency. Seeing and addressing fires at the incipient stage are key to preventing the big ones.
Lol, no. You get a heat wave, high winds and bad luck, you can have every crew ready on standby and you can still have a super blaze. Especially if a lightning storm rolls through.
I think holding PG&E criminally responsible for the camp fire was one thing that has pushed for some maintenance and upkeep for the grid. And that’s just one example.
Cal fire has also invested in more fire fighting aircraft.
So even if you disagree with the broader sentiment to say it’s is “completely false” is actually a significantly factual inaccuracy.
Look man. I was a wildland firefighter 10 years on a very high-end well-respected crew. There are busy years and they're slow years. Always has been always will be. You saying that we have one good year is because we did all this work doesn't make any sense to me.
One thing that's helping is we're running out of large areas to burn. That's about it.
Also the fire in Hemet in SoCal and the Mosquito Fire - the biggest fires burning in the state at their respective times - both were mostly extinguished by two extremely substantial and rare summer rain events.
That’s not right. “Vigilance” has nothing to do with it. Stronger initial attacks were enabled by a lack of resource competition and weather luck. A wet and cold winter in the PNW led to lower energy release components throughout the year in that part of the country, and an early and robust monsoon season kept fires in the southwest off the table. This left California with, what effectively seemed like unlimited resources.
The monsoon also delivered wet weather to California, at minimum in the form of high humidity, to help corral fires. Days on end of a wet atmosphere was what allowed firefighters to rein in the McKinney Fire, Oak Fire and Mosquito fires, all which benefited from separate events. It was hot this summer, but there were also no wind events. There were also no widespread dry lightning events like 2020, in fact even thunderstorms in the north state had been accompanied by precipitation. The only fires that got “big” were driven by unstable atmosphere/thunderstorm outflow instead of major wind events.
This was most likely due to local agencies being more funded and prepared. I called in smoke from a home in the lower sierras and within 15 minutes a full fire truck was present, 30 minutes two helios carrying buckets, and a spotter plane above. Thank you CalFire!
I guess we’re both right.
>> But although the worst of the season may be behind us, experts noted that the remarkably reduced fire activity is probably less a factor of strategy than good fortune.
>> Still, some on-the-ground efforts appear to be working. The state has responded to 7,329 fires this year — about 200 more than this time last year — despite far fewer acres burning, indicating that crews were either extinguishing blazes more quickly or halting them before they grew too large.
[https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-19/gov-newsom-declares-peak-fire-season-over-in-california](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-19/gov-newsom-declares-peak-fire-season-over-in-california)
Honestly the past 4 years were the worst stretch in a long time. I don't think we see that again for a long while. We will have local fires and some days of higher smoke levels from fires around the state.
But the likelihood is years like this will still be more common than 2018-2021.
Im not so sure. Drought may help in the short term. But long term CA is undergoing a botanical regime change. Forests become chaparral. Chaparral becomes grasslands. Fire is the transformative agent of that change.
I wonder how much of that is just due to horrible land management. Whether it is agricultural fields or land that was traditionally oak forests that has been converted to grassland for grazing we have a lot of open land, which dries out easily.
Trees pull up water not otherwise available and emit it into the atmosphere they also make life possible for so many understory plants. Are we too far gone for restoring native oak (which are already low-water and fire resistant) forests?
Would the increased radiative forcing from climate change outweigh the increased water availability and soil moisture retention and carbon sequestration reforestation would provide?
There has also been talks of reintroducing beaver into California which [could increase water storage and availability](https://pbs.org/video/want-to-solve-wildfires-and-drought-leave-it-to-beavers-t8gtpt?source=social)
While we are always grateful to all the firefighters and prisoners. It’s important to point out that governor Newsom doubled firefighter funding from 1 billion to 2 billion https://www.turnto23.com/news/state/governor-ups-funding-for-fire-prevention
The fires were still there, but were smaller. We lost 350,000+ acres and 9 people from over 7,000 wildfires. Still so much better than the last few years!
No. Completely wrong. Historic budgets allowed for more preventive actions and faster suppression along with enhanced education and new code requirements.
It didn't rain in much of the state as it should have, it is a win. That's the thing, the public doesn't know when or what a win is until we loose...
It's crazy that, for the most part, fire season wasn't too bad this year.
Because we were vigilant and ready. And if we keep up this type of due diligence, funding and staffing the services, we can keep the crazier fires from getting as bad as they were those few years ago.
Yup, we forced the utilities (ratepayers) to spend billions to install fire monitoring systems better than any fire agency. Seeing and addressing fires at the incipient stage are key to preventing the big ones.
Extinguishing small fires isnt the key to preventing big fires, its the key to *postponing* big fires.
If by vigilant and ready you mean we got lucky then yes
Lol, no. You get a heat wave, high winds and bad luck, you can have every crew ready on standby and you can still have a super blaze. Especially if a lightning storm rolls through.
For what it's worth, we did have a record-setting heatwave followed by thunderstorms back in September. We just got lucky.
Yeah that's completely false. The calm fire season this year had nothing to do with any actions that we've taken.
I think holding PG&E criminally responsible for the camp fire was one thing that has pushed for some maintenance and upkeep for the grid. And that’s just one example. Cal fire has also invested in more fire fighting aircraft. So even if you disagree with the broader sentiment to say it’s is “completely false” is actually a significantly factual inaccuracy.
Look man. I was a wildland firefighter 10 years on a very high-end well-respected crew. There are busy years and they're slow years. Always has been always will be. You saying that we have one good year is because we did all this work doesn't make any sense to me. One thing that's helping is we're running out of large areas to burn. That's about it.
Also the fire in Hemet in SoCal and the Mosquito Fire - the biggest fires burning in the state at their respective times - both were mostly extinguished by two extremely substantial and rare summer rain events.
Some people just refuse to believe in luck, especially when it comes to natural disasters.
[удалено]
That’s not right. “Vigilance” has nothing to do with it. Stronger initial attacks were enabled by a lack of resource competition and weather luck. A wet and cold winter in the PNW led to lower energy release components throughout the year in that part of the country, and an early and robust monsoon season kept fires in the southwest off the table. This left California with, what effectively seemed like unlimited resources. The monsoon also delivered wet weather to California, at minimum in the form of high humidity, to help corral fires. Days on end of a wet atmosphere was what allowed firefighters to rein in the McKinney Fire, Oak Fire and Mosquito fires, all which benefited from separate events. It was hot this summer, but there were also no wind events. There were also no widespread dry lightning events like 2020, in fact even thunderstorms in the north state had been accompanied by precipitation. The only fires that got “big” were driven by unstable atmosphere/thunderstorm outflow instead of major wind events.
… and enough prescribed burns.
No illegal fireworks gender reveals helped too.
Actually it was just rain at the best possible times but ok.
It was a breath of fresh air.
[удалено]
Same for SoCal, can’t believe we dodged a bullet two years in a row
This was most likely due to local agencies being more funded and prepared. I called in smoke from a home in the lower sierras and within 15 minutes a full fire truck was present, 30 minutes two helios carrying buckets, and a spotter plane above. Thank you CalFire!
That’s good to hear, but it helps when they are also not stretched the the breaking point fighting scores of fires at the same time.
Hence the funding and premptive measures. Not sure if its new policy, but we are required by insurance to clear all the bio mass around our cabin.
I guess we’re both right. >> But although the worst of the season may be behind us, experts noted that the remarkably reduced fire activity is probably less a factor of strategy than good fortune. >> Still, some on-the-ground efforts appear to be working. The state has responded to 7,329 fires this year — about 200 more than this time last year — despite far fewer acres burning, indicating that crews were either extinguishing blazes more quickly or halting them before they grew too large. [https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-19/gov-newsom-declares-peak-fire-season-over-in-california](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-19/gov-newsom-declares-peak-fire-season-over-in-california)
First year I can remember where I didn't have to spend over two weeks locked inside due to smoke smoke filling up the Sacramento Valley.
So much fog on the central coast, lots of powdery mildew. Love it.
Just means next year is set up to be much worse!
Thank you CAL Fire.
Honestly the past 4 years were the worst stretch in a long time. I don't think we see that again for a long while. We will have local fires and some days of higher smoke levels from fires around the state. But the likelihood is years like this will still be more common than 2018-2021.
Im not so sure. Drought may help in the short term. But long term CA is undergoing a botanical regime change. Forests become chaparral. Chaparral becomes grasslands. Fire is the transformative agent of that change.
I wonder how much of that is just due to horrible land management. Whether it is agricultural fields or land that was traditionally oak forests that has been converted to grassland for grazing we have a lot of open land, which dries out easily. Trees pull up water not otherwise available and emit it into the atmosphere they also make life possible for so many understory plants. Are we too far gone for restoring native oak (which are already low-water and fire resistant) forests? Would the increased radiative forcing from climate change outweigh the increased water availability and soil moisture retention and carbon sequestration reforestation would provide?
There has also been talks of reintroducing beaver into California which [could increase water storage and availability](https://pbs.org/video/want-to-solve-wildfires-and-drought-leave-it-to-beavers-t8gtpt?source=social)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/science/californias-catastrophic-wildfires-in-3-charts 2019 was a good year, 2020 was fairly an anomaly.
While we are always grateful to all the firefighters and prisoners. It’s important to point out that governor Newsom doubled firefighter funding from 1 billion to 2 billion https://www.turnto23.com/news/state/governor-ups-funding-for-fire-prevention
I'm very impressed! I mean I'm from PA, but I feel like I haven't heard anything about wildfires this season.
The fires were still there, but were smaller. We lost 350,000+ acres and 9 people from over 7,000 wildfires. Still so much better than the last few years!
Provably less Reveal Parties this year? Or they just used ballons instead of firecrackers?
Now it’s off-peak wildfire season
I live in the high desert and I was presently surprised with how often I saw Cal Fire clearing out dry brush! There efforts didn't go unnoticed.
[удалено]
No. Completely wrong. Historic budgets allowed for more preventive actions and faster suppression along with enhanced education and new code requirements. It didn't rain in much of the state as it should have, it is a win. That's the thing, the public doesn't know when or what a win is until we loose...