California fires are supercharged by this potent factor

Potent fires have been erupting in California since mid-August. That's when a lightning siege of over 13,000 strikes, from passing storm systems, started igniting the land. The siege sparked some 625 blazes. But the warming California environment is the big reason certain blazes rapidly grew into some of the largest fires in Golden State history. A measure of how quickly trees, shrubs, and grasses dry out — known as "vapor pressure deficit," or VPD — is currently at the first or second highest August levels in California (and the greater Southwest) in over 40 years, said John Abatzoglou, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced. This dryness enabled a historic 2020 California fire season, as the state's vegetation, or fire fuel, is primed to burn. Read more...More about California, Climate Change, Fires, Science, and Climate Environment