Fires in NorCal

One of my former students, Austin, just told me about his summer. He studied abroad in Europe for the months of June and July. Austin's parents went over to visit him at the end of his stay there. They live in Redding, CA, and visited him in Europe for about a week. While they were there, their house in Redding burned down.

I didn't know what to say. What they must be going through... My student told me that the fire moved so fast that his neighbors weren't even evacuated and one house started catching fire as the residents were taking naps! The fire hopped over a river and blasted through their neighborhood. Austin said that he's glad his family wasn't there, because the fire was so dangerous and so fast-moving. He feels lucky that everyone is still alive.

The extra heat trapped in our atmosphere is causing more water to evaporate, causing stronger droughts and higher fire danger. With more evaporated water in the air being transferred eastward, the rainstorms downstream are stronger as well. I expect this subject will be addressed quite thoroughly in our Climate Reality training next week. This story is personal. We need people to see connections like this.

Carr fire in Redding