For those of you who are not following what is happening in California, 3 weeks ago we had very rare lighting, highly energetic events happen over much of the state. Over 12,000 lightning strikes ignited hundreds of fires, after a poor rainy season. Over 2 million acres of forest have burned and the firefighter crews are still fighting to control the fires.
I drove through the CA valley today, where it was 116 degrees in Vacaville. Recent records: 130 degrees in Death Valley, and 122 degrees in LA. This is our third year of atrocious fires, and fire season “hasn’t even started yet”!
While I was driving by in a climate-controlled Telsa with a HEPA air filter, we were looking out the window at the less fortunate living in the heat and in smoke with over 200 ppm of particulates. It is very sad to imagine the compounding effects of that air pollution on anyone with asthma or COVID diseases impacting their respiratory systems.
Pray for rain. And work very very hard to limit CO2 and other pollutants that are wrecking our habitat. While I can’t say for sure that global warming caused the lighting, it is undoubtedly a major factor for the ever-increasing temperatures and bark beetles that have weakened or killed many trees, increasing flammability.
Check out this video below from ABC7 News Bay Area for the staggering footage of the lightning storm that started Bay Area fire complexes.
Shug
