California Wildfire Makes… Rain and Hail?
First a heat wave, then fires, now fire thunderstorms
Last night I went to bed worrying about the wildfires in Southern California, where one of our kids lives. This morning I woke to a blood-red sunrise… in Arizona. Smoke from California, I assumed. Nope. Turns out we have our own fires going here.
Fires here, fires there, fires everywhere. Nearly six dozen of them blazing throughout the Western United States as I write this.
Our Arizona wildfires right now are tame compared to the explosive tempests in Southern California, one of which—fueled by dry, hot, windy conditions—created its own rain and hail earlier this week, exemplifying the runaway fire conditions fueled in recent years by climate change.
Research finds climate change is “enhancing the drying of organic matter” and “has been the main driver of the increase in fire weather.” But new research offers one potential solution: More frequent but less intense fires, which can make future fires less wild. More on that below. But first…
How does a fire make a thunderstorm?
Heat from a massive fire can fuel strong convection—rising air—that carries smoke particles high into the atmosphere, where otherwise there would be less material…
