California Wildfires and Heatwaves
- ywacc.ngo
- Aug 19, 2020
- 2 min read
Hello everyone! We hope you are doing well! This week’s post will be about the recent (and ongoing) heat wave on the West Coast of the United States. It seems that California can’t get itself out of the news for extreme weather conditions, from the wildfires to droughts. So why does it seem like these extreme weather conditions are occurring more than they should? Two words: Climate change.
This weekend, California recorded triple digit temperatures well into the night. Cities and towns in the Central Valley broke all-time highs for the month of August. Death Valley reached 130 degrees fahrenheit, possibly setting a record. And there was even a tornado caused by fire that impacted the Sierra Nevada community of Loyalton. Many residents were confused because this heat wave felt different than the usual dry heat of California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona. The Los Angeles Times reported saying, “unusually muggy air made Los Angeles feel like Houston.” These “unusual” weather patterns, give us a glimpse into what the future climate of the West Coast will be like.
States with a large population living in metropolitan areas, like California, are seeing rapidly increasing temperatures as a result of rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Flavio Lehner, a climate change scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research consolidated this theory by stating, ““Climate change is certainly increasing the frequency, severity and duration of extreme heat and warm nights. It is safe to assume that climate change contributed to the extreme nature of recent events, though only a dedicated study could attribute to what extent.”
Medical professionals were also worried about the heatwave impacting the already serious COVID-19 situation in California. Similar to a heatspell in 2006, where triple digit temperatures were recorded for 11 straight days, doctors and nurses are starting to worry about seeing an increase in heat related illnesses and casualties.
And that’s not all there is to worry about. In Southern California, wildfires and smog reported extremely high levels of ozone gas; it reached 173 parts per billion (ppb) in the Redlands on Friday and 167 ppb Saturday in Glendora. According to the Los Angeles Times and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, “One-hour average concentrations of ozone hadn’t gone above 163 ppb in the region since 2009.” These findings are shocking and call for immediate change.
So what can you do? Well if you live in California or the West Coast, try to unplug all unnecessary devices and stay indoors as much as possible. For the rest of us, this specific crisis calls for a greater movement. Start by practicing and incorporating sustainable practices, you can find many posts on our website, into your everyday life. There needs to be changed because if not, “unusual” will become our new normal.
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