Maui on fire (Page 2/2)
cliffw AUG 16, 10:38 PM

quote
Originally posted by OldsFiero:
When we leave on the 24th, it will be a 3 island adventure.



Lodging might be tough but otherwise it is a historic time to go, to a historic island.

The whole island did not burn.
Fiero_Adam AUG 19, 05:34 PM
There are/were multiple fires, but main focus was in the western town of Lahaina. The pace that this fire moved through the town is unbelievable. They still don't know the cause of the initial fire that started the devastation. Only thing I've read so far is possibly electrical lines fell and sparked. Oh, and climate change.

[This message has been edited by Fiero_Adam (edited 08-19-2023).]

cvxjet AUG 19, 10:21 PM
Cliff- You are right to suggest burying the lines....but they need to improve HOW they bury them to mitigate the chances of ground shifting causing outages. I would rather have some outages than a catastrophic fire! Also, maybe make switches with wind sensors on the high tension lines that automatically switches off the power when the winds exceed a certain speed.

We have had several large fires in CA- and obviously the west and now in Canada and Australia. Droughts are killing a large percentage of the trees...and then high winds A) down power lines which SPARKS the fires, and then B) The high winds make it impossible to fight the fires.

We had the largest wild fire ever in CA (Dixie fire- 900,000 acres)...There was no way to even fight it at times because of 40-70 mph winds.

I went for a bike ride up in Lassen Volcanic NP a month ago (Favorite place in the world for me)...At times I was really enjoying the ride...then I would see some of the forest that had burned....But even when I was not in areas that had burned, I could see a lot of dead trees...The drought from 2013 to 2016 killed half of the trees in CA (And in other western states)

California has 50,000 square miles of forest...So clearing the dead trees is going to take a long time- especially since most of that forest is in mountainous terrain...
Patrick AUG 20, 04:43 PM

quote
Originally posted by cvxjet:

But even when I was not in areas that had burned, I could see a lot of dead trees...The drought from 2013 to 2016 killed half of the trees in CA (And in other western states)



Don't forget the devastation of forests caused by the explosion in population of the mountain pine beetle. All those dead trees due to that damn beetle make for a lot of forest fire kindling!
Patrick AUG 20, 08:18 PM

Here in British Columbia, wildfires are currently raging around the province. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. From the following article (which has quite a few photos), this particular image jumped out at me. Look what became of this car's alloy wheels... turned into puddles of molten metal. Damn, that inferno must've been hot!

This is what's left of Scotch Creek, B.C., after wildfire
rinselberg AUG 21, 01:31 AM
"A ‘perfect storm’ set Hawaii ablaze. Experts say it could happen almost anywhere"
Hayley Smith for the Los Angeles Times; August 20, 2023.
https://www.latimes.com/cal...ppen-almost-anywhere

Hayley Smith is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Prominent in her reportage is her coverage of the analytical mosaic that incorporates the accelerating crescendo of drought conditions and wildfires worldwide with the ongoing scientific revelations about climate change in a mostly warming world. A Miami native, Smith earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.

The text of Smith's report pegs the proverbial Read-o-Meter at a quasi-magazine article length of 6 minutes "and change."

Excerpt:

quote
“We’re starting to see the emergence of much greater fire activity in places where fires are conditionally possible but less common,” Swain said. The next fire, for example, might be somewhere in Appalachia, or downwind of the Pine Barrens or in a beach town in New Jersey, or in Wisconsin or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, he said.

The recipe for such disasters will inevitably vary from place to place and event to event, and could depend on factors such as forest management, urban development, invasive species and drought conditions, some of which are being heightened by human-caused climate change.

Places that may have had a 1-in-1,000 chance of such a fire in the 20th century might now see risk levels closer to 1-in-100, Swain said.

“That still is unlikely, but it’s a lot less unlikely,” he said. “And if there are hundreds of places at risk of a 1-in-100 event, now all of a sudden you’re going to start to see it happening more and more often.”


The article includes some large format photographs that are captioned in a way that adds significantly to the narrative.
cliffw AUG 21, 09:45 AM

quote
Originally posted by cvxjet:
Cliff- You are right to suggest burying the lines....but they need to improve HOW they bury them to mitigate the chances of ground shifting causing outages.



There is an easy solution. Septic lines now are buried in a cocoon of pea gravel. To help septic tank drainage. I can see it could help buried power lines be protected from shifting ground.
cliffw AUG 21, 09:50 AM

quote
Originally posted by rinselberg:
Hayley Smith is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Prominent in her reportage is her coverage of the analytical mosaic that incorporates the accelerating crescendo of drought conditions and wildfires worldwide with the ongoing scientific revelations about climate change in a mostly warming world. A Miami native, Smith earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.



. Would I kick her out of bed for eating crackers ?

Analytical mosaic ? Does that mean opinion ?
rinselberg AUG 22, 11:17 AM
So-called "Föhn" winds implicated in recent heatwaves and wildfires.


quote
"Once you have global warming and you have the normal variability like Föhn winds contributing, it all acts together and gives you the heatwave you've never seen before,"

Jim Overland, NOAA Meteorologist.


Here's a fulsome description:

"The weird wind that can supercharge heatwaves and wildfire"
Chris Baraniuk for BBC News; August 20, 2023.
https://www.bbc.com/future/...atwaves-and-wildfire


TheGeoRoom has a very basic explanation. Short and "sweet" with an easily understood diagram

What is the Fohn Effect (Wind)
Denver Kunaka for TheGeoRoom; August 23, 2020.
https://thegeoroom.co.zw/cl...he-fohn-effect-wind/

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-22-2023).]

theBDub AUG 23, 04:02 PM

quote
Originally posted by OldsFiero:

We saved for our 4 island adventure. We booked it months ago. When we leave on the 24th, it will be a 3 island adventure.

Marc



I was supposed to be in Maui (Lahaina specifically) 8/13-18. Obviously, I made different plans.