Wildfire: Kaibab National Forest, Arizona
Wildfire:
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire (in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire
PX Ancient Reports on Wildfires:
Wildfire and fire related weather and Natural Hazard events will increase in number and intensity. Trees and vegetation will burn, combustible gases are belched from the earth and ignite, oceans and water ways burn, and lightning strikes increase.
Ancient Reports: Scorched Earth on Fire and Extreme and Prolonged Wildfire Events
Warming Oceans, Boiling Seas, Dry Waterways
PX Signs of the Times:
Wildfire Events on the Rise:
Red Cross Wildfires:
https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/wildfire.html
"Wildfires affect everyone. They can spread fast and harm us. Wildfires are getting bigger and more dangerous. More people are living in areas at risk for wildfires, but we can take action to prepare."
Wildfires and Climate Change
https://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/
"Climate change has been a key factor in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the Western United States. Wildfire risk depends on a number of factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other potential fuel. All these factors have strong direct or indirect ties to climate variability and climate change"
The Latest Data Confirms: Forest Fires Are Getting Worse
https://www.wri.org/insights/global-trends-forest-fires
"The latest data on forest fires confirms what we’ve long feared: Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.
Using data from a recent study by researchers at the University of Maryland, we calculated that forest fires now result in 3 million more hectares of tree cover loss per year compared to 2001 — an area roughly the size of Belgium — and accounted for more than one-quarter of all tree cover loss over the past 20 years.
Climate change is one of the major drivers of increasing fire activity. Extreme heat waves are already 5 times more likely today than they were 150 years ago and are expected to become even more frequent as the planet continues to warm. Hotter temperatures dry out the landscape and help create the perfect environment for larger, more frequent forest fires. This in turn leads to higher emissions from forest fires, further exacerbating climate change and contributing to more fires as part of a “fire-climate feedback loop.”
Number of wildfires to rise by 50% by 2100 and governments are not prepared, experts warn
"Wildfires and climate change are mutually exacerbating. Wildfires are made worse by climate change through increased drought, high air temperatures, low relative humidity, lightning, and strong winds resulting in hotter, drier, and longer fire seasons."
Wildfire Impacts:
- Even the Arctic, previously all but immune, faces rising wildfire risk, experts say ahead of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi
- Wildfires and climate change are “mutually exacerbating”
- Governments are called to radically shift their investments in wildfires to focus on prevention and preparedness
- People’s health is directly affected by inhaling wildfire smoke, causing respiratory and cardiovascular impacts and increased health effects for the most vulnerable;
- The economic costs of rebuilding after areas are struck by wildfires can be beyond the means of low-income countries;
- Watersheds are degraded by wildfires’ pollutants; they also can lead to soil erosion causing more problems for waterways;
- Wastes left behind are often highly contaminated and require appropriate disposal.
Oceans on Fire:
Fires on the ocean surface can be caused by a variety of factors, including lightning strikes, volcanic eruptions, release of flammable gases, and oil spills. Offshore oil platforms and underwater pipelines are also potential sources of ocean fires. These structures can release flammable gases and liquids, which can ignite if they come into contact with an ignition source.
Ocean Fire
https://www.americanoceans.org/facts/ocean-fire/
Zombie Fires or Combustible Gas Release?
"Canada wildfires never stopped, they just went underground as "zombie fires" smolder on through the winter"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-wildfires-never-stopped-zombie-fires-smolder-winter/
Eternal Flames:
As the Earth's crust stretches, cracks, and undergoes increases in tectonic and earth quake activity, seepages of combustible gases like methane can occur. Once ignited, some of them could take many years to burn out. Ancient Stories talked about the Caucasus Region having fires that never burnt out.
Latin Poet Ovid: "Metamorphoses" Excerpts on Earth on Fire
Caucasus Region and a 4,000 Year Old Fire:
Yanar Dagh is known as 'burning mountain'
"Yanar Dagh is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Flames jet into the air 3 metres from a thin, porous sandstone layer. Administratively, Yanar Dagh belongs to Absheron District of Azerbaijan."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dagh
Eternal flame: How Azerbaijan became the ‘Land of Fire’
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/yanar-dag-azerbaijan-land-of-fire/index.html
“This fire has burned 4,000 years and never stopped,” says Aliyeva Rahila. “Even the rain coming here, snow, wind – it never stops burning.”
Ahead, tall flames dance restlessly across a 10-meter stretch of hillside, making a hot day even hotter.
This is Yanar Dagh – meaning “burning mountainside”
Wildfire Preparedness, Safety and Emergency Planning:
Wildfire Weather Safety
https://www.weather.gov/safety/wildfire
Be Prepared for a Wildfire
https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2021-12/ready_wildfire_info-sheet.pdf
Prepare for Wildfires
https://www.ready.gov/wildfires
FEMA Natural Hazards Wildfire
https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/wildfire
Wildfire and Health:
https://medlineplus.gov/wildfires.html
Relevant Current Events:
2024:
Friday March 1, 2024
NBC: Deadly Texas wildfire is now the largest in state history
"The massive Smokehouse Creek Fire is now officially the largest wildfire in Texas state history. The fire has consumed more than a million acres and claimed at least one life."
Tuesday February 27, 2024
Fire-Weather: When High Winds Meet Dry Air
Monday February 26, 2024
Crews battle West Monument Creek Fire by air and ground resources
"The U.S. Air Force Academy said as of 9 a.m. the West Monument Creek Fire was 20% contained and the fire has so far burned 168 acres."
https://www.fox21news.com/news/wildfire-burning-on-air-force-academy/?ipid=promo-link-block1
X Twitter:
https://x.com/AF_Academy/status/1762171397869089229?s=20
Ongoing:
Canada wildfires never stopped, they just went underground as "zombie fires" smolder on through the winter
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-wildfires-never-stopped-zombie-fires-smolder-winter/
"Canada's 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded, with 6,551 fires scorching nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. It wasn't just remarkable for its destruction, however, but also for the fact that it never really seemed to end.
It's the middle of the winter, and there are still 149 active wildfires burning across Canada, including 92 in British Columbia, 56 in the western province of Alberta, and one in New Brunswick, according to the CIFFC, which classifies two of the blazes as out of control.
"Zombie fires," also called overwintering fires, burn slowly below the surface during the cold months. Experts say zombie fires have become more common as climate change warms the atmosphere, and they are currently smoldering at an alarming rate in both British Columbia and Alberta.
"I've never experienced a snowstorm that smelled like smoke," Sonja Leverkus, a wildlands firefighter and ecosystem scientist based in British Columbia, told CBS News partner network BBC News."
