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This year, a good 13,000 square kilometers of land has already been burned in California. According to estimates by the California Fire and Forest Protection Authority, this is already significantly more than in the previous seven years. The fire season will last at least three more weeks, and the flames will continue to make their way, as you can see on this map:
What looks like a volcanic eruption in the satellite photo below is called “Apple Fire.” The East Los Angeles fire in Riverside County has been burning since July 31. At times, up to 2,800 firefighters and other helpers participated in fighting the fire. According to official information, the trigger was a defective diesel vehicle. Due to parched vegetation and dry winds from the southwest, the fire spread rapidly. The fire has now been largely contained:
The land disappears under the milky clouds of smoke from the “SCU Lightning Complex”, one of the largest still active fire areas with 20 individual fires on the west coast of the United States near San Jose in southeastern San Francisco. Some 1,600 square kilometers fell victim to the fire here, but firefighters have almost completely regained control of the flames:
Satellites closely monitor the state of fields and forests. Special filters make healthy forest areas look red, burned areas brown and gray. How quickly flames destroy large areas of land can be seen very well. Here you can see the large “SCU” fire areas in the east of San José and the smaller “CZU” in the west of the city:
The “CZU” fire area from a height of about 500 kilometers: Like gigantic contrails, the clouds of smoke move over the chain of hills in South San Francisco. The extent of the fires on the west coast was even measurable in Germany this weekend when the sky was cloudy with ash and soot particles:
According to the California Fire and Forest Protection Agency, five of this year’s fires are among the 20 largest in California history since records began in 1930. Persistent drought and high winds continue to fuel the flames. . Due to climate change, the fire season in the most populous state in the US begins earlier and ends later each year.
