Mother Nature is very, very angry
by digby
We've got your massive hurricanes, your historic floods, your tornadoes .... aaaand you've got your out-of-control fires:
Despite record-breaking rain and snowfall across the West in 2017, this year’s fire season has been unforgiving.
Billows of thick black smoke and red-hot flames have consumed hundreds of thousands of acres in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Utah.
More than 24,000 firefighters have been battling 137 blazes, some for as long as six months, leaving experts shocked at the scale and duration.
“Typically by the third week of September we see not as much fire activity,” said Jessica Gardetto, spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center. “But we just haven’t had that relief.”
The blazes have been responsible for the deaths of eight firefighters and have destroyed more than 500 homes. So far in fiscal year 2017, the Forest Service has spent $1.75 billion fighting fires; as of Sept. 1, the U.S. Interior Department has spent more than $391 million.
“Because fire season has been so lengthy we have to be strategic…. We have been stretched thin on resources,” Gardetto said.
What makes the fires burning across the West so extreme?
One aspect that sets this year apart is the length of time the fire season has lasted, in part because of dry air, conducive for sustaining wildfires.
Lightning strikes in Oregon and Washington have sparked many of the wildfires still ravaging large swaths of land, while drought-stricken Montana continues to battle several large fires.
“We didn’t think we were going to have large-scale wildfires like this in high elevation because of all the significant amount of snowpack. Fire season ended up being much more above normal than a lot of us had predicted,” Gardetto said.
In case you were wondering, the Trump administration said no to federal disaster aid for the fires. They aren't sexy enough for POTUS and FLOTUS to tour the area and say stupid things.
Evidently, the congress managed to sneak it into the Harvey relief package. I'm sure it burned up Ted Cruz (no pun intended) that he had to vote to help anyone anywhere but the people he needs to vote for him next year. Trump surely regrets losing this opportunity to stick it to the western blue states that didn't vote for him. Maybe next time.
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