Even though the extensive forest fires that have been occurring in Fort McMurray, Alberta, seem far away, they have caused impacts here in the Southeast.  Here are some stories discussing the links between the fires and climate as well as implications for the Southeast.

NASA’ s Earth Observatory posted a striking image of the smoke coming off of the fires as seen by astronauts on the International Space Station.  It’s described at https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=88051.  Some of the smoke from those fires made it all the way down to Georgia, according to images I posted last week on this blog.

NOAA posted a blog article on May 12 describing the climate connections to the fire at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/climate-connections-fort-mcmurray-fire.  This article described the impacts of an atmospheric pattern known as an “omega” block, which brought cooler weather to the Southeast until it moved eastward enough to put us into flow from the south, bringing warmer weather back to us.

NOAA posted a follow-up article on May 18 describing the impact of the unusually low snow cover this year in helping the fires develop and spread.  Since 1979, April snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has been shrinking by 1-2 percent per decade, May snowfall by 3-5 percent, and June snowfall by 17 percent, according to the article.  That makes it easier to burn, since more fuel is available and not covered by snow.  You can read that at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/april-2016-snow-cover-did-no-favors-fort-mcmurray-fire.

The Washington Post noted here that this fire is still burning and is expected to contribute a significant fraction of the carbon released to the atmosphere by Canada in 2016; in addition, the fire is affecting permafrost and is contributing black soot to the area, which could change the albedo and energy balance of the area, allowing more rapid warming than would occur in the absence of the fires.

And finally, Slate published an article talking about the collision between human development and wildfires. I was interested to see them talk about the likelihood of problems coming to the Southeast in the future.  Here is what they said:

“Initially, the problem appeared as a California pathology. But it soon broke out of quarantine and has spread across western North America. The prevailing narrative held that the problem was stupid Westerners building houses where there were fires. Most of the vulnerable communities, however, are in the southeastern U.S., and if climate change modelers are correct, we will see the fires moving to where the houses are.”

Georgia is now over 70 percent forested, up from the beginning of last century when there was a lot more bare ground in cotton fields.  And as populations have continued to grow, homes in the woods have increased.  What does this mean for our future vulnerability?  If temperatures continue to get warmer, as they have since the 1970s, evaporation will increase and droughts may become more likely, even if precipitation also increases.

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