Signs Of The Times...

A Sign Of The Times? Unprecedented Fires Have Turned Skies Blood Red

BY MICHAEL SNYDER

2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for the U.S. as a whole, but no part of thecountry has been hit harder than the states along the west coast.  It has just been one thing after another all year long, and now unprecedented wildfires have turned the skies bright orange and blood red over vast stretches of California and Oregon.  

Many are using the word "apocalyptic" to describe what is happening, and others have said that the skies look like something out of a science fiction movie.  And even though hundreds of thousands of acres have already burned in Oregon and Washington, and even though more than two million acres have already burned in California, officials are warning that conditions will get even worse as we head into "the teeth of the wildfire season".

I can't remember a time when skies have turned completely red for an extended period of time in the state of Oregon, but that is precisely what we witnessed on Wednesday.  The following comes from an article entitled "Skies turn blood-red above Oregon in apocalyptic scenes from wildfire-ravaged state"...

Journalist Christine Pitawanich from KGW 8 is heard explaining in the video: "This, right here, is downtown Stayton.

"You can see the red hue, the red-orange glow in the sky. There is ash, falling visibly in front of the headlights of the car.

"But downtown, basically, empty here beside a few people walking around.

Can you imagine the panic that people living in that part of Oregon must be feeling right now?

So far, an estimated 200,000 acres of land has been scorched.

Of course California has been dealing with "unprecedented" fire events for a few weeks now, and on Wednesday morning residents of San Francisco awoke to find that the skies above their city had turned "a pumpkin orange color"...

Just when Bay Area residents thought the world outside couldn't get stranger, the sky Wednesday dimly glowed a pumpkin orange color you'd expect to see on Mars.

With wildfire smoke high aloft in the atmosphere, the sky was a sickly yellow on Tuesday, but today a thicker blanket of toxic air is traveling overhead and the color turned an even stranger, richer hue.

And just like in Oregon, ash from nearby wildfires is falling in large quantities.

In fact, it is being reported that at one point so much ash was falling in the Bay Area that "it looked like moderate to heavy snow"...

In some spots the sooty air reached the ground, and National Weather Service forecaster Roger Gass said a weather spotter saw falling ash at Buchanan Field Airport in Concord.

"They reported a significant amount of ash," said Gass. "Almost to the point where it looked like moderate to heavy snow."

This has already been the worst wildfire season in the history of the state of California, and we haven't even gotten to the heart of wildfire season yet.

More than two million acres have already been burned, and normally October and November are the worst months for wildfires in the state.

Extreme heat and a bitter drought combined to create ideal conditions for wildfires to break out, and California Governor Gavin Newsom says that there were "14,000 lightning strikes" during one recent 24 hour period...

I know that California is a huge state, but 14,000 lightning strikes in one 24 hour period seems really, really extreme to me.

I am sure that officials have a "rational explanation" for why so many lightning strikes are happening, but could it be possible that what is happening goes beyond our usual rational explanations?

What we do know is that literally dozens of fires are being started every day in California, and firefighters are really scrambling to try to contain them...

"Just yesterday there were 43 new fires. The day before that, 49 fires," Berlant said. "When a fire ignites right now ... they are able to burn at explosive rates. But firefighters have done an amazing job at being able to contain most of these fires that are igniting."

I have a really hard time imagining that this fire season could get even worse in the state, but that is what officials are telling us.  In fact, the phrase "much worse" is being used to describe what is potentially ahead...

California's record-breaking fire season could get much worse in the coming days as powerful winds heighten the danger of more blazes while firefighters continue to struggle with destructive conflagrations across the state.

Intense Diablo winds are forecast for parts of Northern California this week, with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. saying it would shut off power to numerous communities in hopes of avoiding new fires potentially sparked by downed power lines.

If you look at a map of all the fires that are raging right now, it looks like nearly the entire state is already on fire at this moment.

So I am not exactly sure what "much worse" would look like.



Death toll jumps to 15 as record wildfires continue raging in California, Oregon, and Washington, U.S.

Julie Celestial

At least 15 people have been killed in record-breaking wildfires burning through the western U.S. as of Friday, September 11, 2020, with California, Oregon, and Washington bearing the brunt of the blazes. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), there are 102 active large fires burning across over 1.6 million ha (4.3 million acres) of land.

There are 24 massive fires reported in California, 16 each in Washington and Oregon, 11 in Idaho, 9 in Montana, 7 in Arizona, 6 in Colorado, 5 in Utah, 4 in Alaska, 2 in Wyoming, and 1 each in Nevada and New Mexico.

Authorities retrieved seven bodies in Northern California on Thursday, September 10, raising the total number of fatalities in the state to 10. However, authorities feat the death toll in the state will rise as there are 16 people still missing.

The August Complex Fire-- one of the blazes in the area-- is now considered the largest in the state's history, according to Cal Fire.

500 000 forced to evacuate as massive wildfires rage through Oregon, U.S.

Teo Blašković

The number of people forced to evacuate their homes in Oregon rose to an estimated 500 000 by Friday, September 11, 2020. This is more than 10% of the state's 4.2 million people and the number keeps growing. 

• The fires have so far consumed a record 364 000 ha (900 000 acres) of land.
• The public is urged to check local county websites for information on evacuation orders, which may include email, cell phone text messages.

Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps said the extensive number of fires, and their severity, have tapped out statewide resources. The agency is reaching out to emergency management agencies across the country for resources, assistance, and support.