Since Saturday, California has suffered its biggest fire of the year, raising fears of a risky summer. Dubbed the “Post Fire,” this fire broke out in the rural area of Gorman, a little over an hour’s drive northwest of Los Angeles. It burned nearly 6,000 hectares in two days and has already led to the evacuation of 1,200 people, according to the authorities. According to a bulletin from the authorities, it was only 8% contained, despite the tireless efforts of 1,150 firefighters.
This fire, which spread at lightning speed due to powerful winds (with gusts ranging from 95 to 105 km/h), has so far consumed vast areas of brush and meadows in this mountainous region. Homes have generally been spared so far. “It’s a safe bet that the fire is going to get bigger at this point,” Craig Little, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told the LA Times.
A fire that hides others
The blaze, which broke out in mid-June, worries the authorities, because it could be the foretaste of an intense fire season in this United States state. The situation is all the more critical as around fifteen smaller fires broke out across the state over the weekend. “By July, we are likely to have a very active fire season, especially at low altitudes,” warned climatologist Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The state experienced “two consecutive rainy winters”, which favored the “growth” of particularly dense vegetation, he said. By drying out as summer approaches, this “offers more biomass to burn in potential fires.” According to the US Weather Service, the last two years have been the wettest on record in Los Angeles. But for several weeks, the intense heat wave raging in the American West has now raised fears of a rapid drying out of vegetation.
Another concern: heat records
Indeed, California and many other states are concerned about the record heat recorded since the beginning of June. In Las Vegas (Nevada), the thermometer rose to 44°C and it reached 50°C in Death Valley (California). Initially limited to the American West, this heat wave is spreading to the center and east of the country, with abnormally high temperatures for the month of June. It could be over 38°C in New York.
For scientists, these repeated heat waves are an undeniable marker of global warming and are expected to multiply, last longer and intensify. Specialists also believe that abnormally high temperatures in the pre-summer period can herald a suffocating summer and, therefore, very high risks of fires. According to Daniel Swain, “the second half of the season will be much more active with a much more worrying level of wildfire activity in many regions.”