A barrage of lightning strikes has encircled the San Francisco Bay Area with flame. The cameras put in place to watch for smoke are recording dramatic scenes like this right now. It feels like we hit a tipping point in recent years: Brimstone falling from the sky is a beginning to seem like a seasonal occurrence.NEW: As numerous #wildfires rage across California, @NOAA's #GOES17 caught this time-lapse of the #lightning between Aug 16-18 that ignited many new #fires. The satellite's #GLM sensor detected several thousand strikes across the state during 72 hrs. #CAwx #CaliforniaWildfires pic.twitter.com/pMJ1mwGdTd
— NOAA Satellites – Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) August 20, 2020
The big pieces of char are jaw dropping, but it’s the small ash particles that kill most effectively. The fires have swathed the West with dangerous haze. These tiny bits of soot worm their way into lung tissue, causing asthma and cancer. It always takes a little while to determine if climate change made any specific event worse — but it’s clear that the world is getting hotter, and the hotter things get, the more likely they are to burn. The world is changing before our eyes.Raining from the sky in Felton, CA. Large amount of fully burned or nearly burned oak leaves. pic.twitter.com/tRdtRcnHS1 — Lana Sully (@itsasullivan) August 19, 2020
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline If it’s August, the West must be on fire on Aug 21, 2020.