2020 California Wildfires

The Sanderson fire in Riverside County that started last weekend has been contained. Let us pray that this will be the ending of this dreadful California wildfire season. In 2020 according to Cal Fire the tragic toll of the wildfires was: 9,639 fire incidents that burned 4,177,856 acres of land, destroyed or damaged 10,488 buildings and killed 31 people. The December fires are the latest episodes (and hopefully the last) in what has been a brutal fire season for California and much of the western United States.

Five of the California’s six largest fires on record have occurred in 2020, including the August Complex, the largest fire by area on record for California. It alone burned over 1 million acres in Northern California. The North Complex Fire that destroyed 2,315 structures, was the fifth most destructive in dollar value on record. The Glass Fire that destroyed several vineyards, blanketed the Bay Area with smoke for weeks. 

Smoke over western U.S. from NASA Sept 2020

Wildfire smoke contains a potent mixture of particulates and gases that can pose a serious health hazard. According to researchers with Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment, poor air quality from fires in August and September 2020 likely contributed to more than 1,200 excess deaths and 4,800 additional hospital visits in California. This on top of the pandemic.

Wildfires are a natural part of California. However, the fire season in California and across much of the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire. The length of fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days across the Sierras.

Meanwhile, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service of the European Union reported that in the rest of the world 2020 had one of the lowest level of active fires on the global level. So, while there were fewer wildfires in the rest of the world, the U.S. was hammered by a brutal and unrelenting fire season.