© CNNAirn Hartwig loads a chicken into a cardboard box as she evacuates due to the threat from the Cameron Peak Fire in Masonville, Colorado, on Wednesday.
The Cameron Peak Fire, burning just west of Fort Collins, is now the largest wildfire in Colorado history, Gov. Jared Polis
said in a tweet Wednesday night.
The blaze has burned through more than 158,000 acres and is 56% contained,
officials said. It was ignited on August 13 and has since been fueled by high winds and dangerous terrain that's worked against firefighters' efforts to battle the flames and increase containment.
It has now surpassed the
Pine Gulch Fire, which burned about 139,007 acres earlier this year and the Hayman Fire, which burned through more than 138,000 acres in 2002, according to the
US Department of Agriculture.The Cameron Peak Fire also prompted several evacuation orders Wednesday. In a statement posted on
Facebook, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced there was a mandatory evacuation order for Lory State Park.
Comment: The smoke these wildfires produce, together with particulates from meteor 'smoke' and volcanic eruptions, all jointly contribute to the increased dust-load in the atmosphere. This changes its electric charge rebalancing mechanisms, producing more intense storms and precipitation in the form of record rainfall, hail, lightning strikes, atmospheric 'anomalies' etc.
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