Wildfires
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Fire

Florida on fire: 125 active blazes, 'Worst wildfire season'

Sherri Lonon
Tampa Patch
Mon, 08 May 2017 17:16 UTC
wildfire
With more than 125 active wildfires burning across Florida, including one that spanned more than 2,200 acres in Pasco County, state officials issued a plea to residents and visitors on Monday, urging caution.

"Florida is in the middle of its worst wildfire season in years - with no end in sight," Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Adam Putnam said in a May 8 statement. "With such an active wildfire season and much of Florida experiencing significant drought conditions, residents and visitors should take every precaution to help prevent wildfires."

May is traditionally one of Florida's driest months, Putnam said, and forecasters anticipate conditions will only get drier and warmer heading into late spring and early summer. Considering the dangers, Gov. Rick Scott issued a wildfire-related state of emergency declaration on April 11. That declaration remains in place. The last time the state had to issue an emergency executive order related to wildfires was June 2011, Putnam said.

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Fire

Thousands evacuated as forest fires hit South Korea


Korea Times
Sat, 06 May 2017 01:35 UTC
South Korea wildfire
© Yonhap
The Gangneung city government said more than 2,500 residents were ordered to flee Saturday as a wind-fed forest fire spread in the eastern city.

About 300 residents are known to have fled from their homes after the blaze started on a hill near Daegwallyeong, a mountain pass close to the east coast, at around 3:30 p.m., according to city officials.

A total of 30 private houses were damaged by the fire as of 10 p.m., but no casualties have been reported, they said.

The residents took shelter at nearby schools and other public facilities, officials said.

Traffic along some parts of a nearby expressway was temporarily restricted but returned to normal at 10 p.m.

About 2,700 people, including hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, police officers and government officials, have been dispatched to fight the fire, but they are struggling to extinguish it, the officials said.

A series of forest fires hit South Korean cities on the same day amid a drought warning.
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Fire

Russia declares state of emergency, as wildfires hit village in Siberia, burning to ground


RT
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 08:40 UTC
Russian village burns
© Ruptly
Rescuers have managed to save all the residents of a Russian village before the settlement located on an island in Irkutsk Region burned to the ground. The spread of wildfires across Siberia has prompted authorities to declare a state of emergency.

Hundreds of people were trapped in the village of Bubnovka surrounded by water as a massive fire was ripping through their homes. Luckily for some 435 residents, local Emergencies Ministry staff were conducting anti-flood drills in the area and rapidly reacted to the incident.


Responding the distress call, they rushed to the scene to evacuate the villagers. Using an air cushion rescue boat, the responders brought people to safety. No one was harmed.


Despite efforts by the local team of firefighters, the entire village of 86 houses burned down in the suspected wildfire, the governor's press service told RIA Novosti.


"It was impossible to bring additional [firefighting] forces because of the fact that Bubnovka is located on the island. Gusty winds contributed to the spread of fire," the governor's office said.


The Investigative Committee, however, has opened a criminal case to see if any negligence was involved.
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Arrow Down

The 'March to Silence' - Shots fired at building housing leading climate skeptic scientists

Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.
Roy Spencer Blog
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:09 UTC
NSSTC
© Image via Google Maps Street ViewNational Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) building.
A total of seven shots were fired into our National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) building here at UAH over the weekend.

All bullets hit the 4th floor, which is where John Christy's office is (my office is in another part of the building).

Given that this was Earth Day weekend, with a March for Science passing right past our building on Saturday afternoon, I think this is more than coincidence. When some people cannot argue facts, they resort to violence to get their way. It doesn't matter that we don't "deny global warming"; the fact we disagree with its seriousness and the level of human involvement in warming is enough to send some radicals into a tizzy.

Our street is fairly quiet, so I doubt the shots were fired during Saturday's march here. It was probably late night Saturday or Sunday for the shooter to have a chance of being unnoticed.

Maybe the "March For Science" should have been called the "March To Silence".

Campus and city police say they believe the shots were fired from a passing car, based upon the angle of entry into one of the offices. Shell casings were recovered outside. The closest distance a passing car would have been is 70 yards away.

This is a developing story. I have no other details.
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Info

7 notable weather events observed across United States this April

Linda Lam
The Weather Channel
Wed, 19 Apr 2017 14:00 UTC
Sierra Nevada snowpack
© NASAThis photo composite shows the snow water equivalent-- water content of snow -- in the Tuolumne River Basin in 2015 and 2017. White and the lighter blue indicates less snow, while deeper blue represents more snow. NASA reports: "The 2017 snow water equivalent was 21 times greater than 2015, which was the lowest snowpack on record."
Spring can bring interesting weather conditions to the U.S. and this year is no exception, with several impressive records having already been set so far this April.

While not setting records, a few other unusual and notable weather occurrences have caught our eye this month.

1) California's Northern Sierra Nevada Set Record For All-Time Wettest 'Water Year'

On April 13, California's northern Sierra Nevada set a new record for its all-time wettest water year with an accumulated average of 89.7 inches of water. The previous record of 88.5 inches was set during the 1982-83 water year. To put it in perspective, the average water year sees 50 inches of precipitation.


The water year runs from October through September, but most precipitation falls from November through March. By April, the storm track typically shifts reducing the chance for additional precipitation. This year, however, has been different with rain and mountain snow continuing to fall this month, allowing records to topple.

Comment: According to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC) there have been 5,372 preliminary reports of severe weather across the United States in 2017 (up to April 8), which is more than double the average.

For more coverage on the extreme weather affecting the entire planet, check out our monthly SOTT Earth Changes Summaries. Last month:

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - March 2017: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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Fire

91 wildfires burn in Florida; thousands evacuated

Nicole Chavez and Matt Rehbein
CNN
Sat, 22 Apr 2017 16:50 UTC
Aerial view of brush fire in Polk County, Florida on April 21, 2017.
Aerial view of brush fire in Polk County, Florida on April 21, 2017.
Thousands of homes have been evacuated as firefighters continue to battle 91 wildfires across Florida, the state's forest service said.

Since Thursday, more than 25,000 acres have burned in the state, Florida Forest Service spokesman Joe Zwierzchowski told CNN on Friday.

"The state is really dry. Thank God we have the firefighters we have all around the state," Florida Governor Rick Scott told reporters.

Out of the 91 wildfires, two fires caused the evacuation of thousands of homes in central and southwest Florida.

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Fire

Over 100 wildfires scorch Florida

Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 16:49 UTC
fire
More than 100 active wildfires are burning across the state right now, according to the Florida Forest Service. Twenty-seven of them are scorching more than 100 acres each.

"We're usually not this active this early in the season," the service's assistant fire chief, Ralph Crawford, said Monday.

So it has gone in Tampa Bay, where firefighters spent Monday battling brush fires that flared up in Hernando and Pasco counties. A fast-moving grass fire Friday in St. Petersburg shut down the Interstate 275 interchange at Gandy Boulevard just as rush hour started, tying up traffic for hours.

Since February, wildfires have swept across 68,000 acres of the state, already more than the average acreage burned over the past five years, Crawford said.

"And we're just barely into April," he added. "Usually May is our busiest month."


Comment:

Update: On April 11, 2017, Governor Scott called a state of emergency due to the fires:



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Arrow Up

Severe weather reports in U.S. tally 5,000+ so far this year; more than double the average

Chris Dolce
The Weather Channel
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 12:00 UTC
Cost of severe US weather events 2017
© YouTube/the Weather Channel (screen capture)Weather Disasters Costing U.S. Billions. The first three months of 2017 have proven to be very costly, after a series of weather disasters ranging from tornadoes to floods to crop-killing freezes.
The U.S. has endured a destructive start to 2017 from the multiple severe weather outbreaks since January.

There have been 5,372 preliminary reports of severe weather across the United States in 2017 through April 8, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC). That figure includes reports of tornadoes, large hail and wind damage.

This is more than than double the average of 2,274 for the same period of time during the past 10 years (2007-2016). In that decade, only 2008 had about the same number of severe weather reports by this point in the year with 5,242.

The animation below shows how the occurrences of wind damage, large hail and tornadoes have piled up month-by-month this year. Portions of the South have been hit the hardest, but the Midwest has also seen a high concentration of severe weather reports.

Comment: For more coverage on the extreme weather affecting the entire planet, check out our monthly SOTT Earth Changes Summaries. Last month:

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - March 2017: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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Fireball

SOTT Focus: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - March 2017: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs


Sott.net
Fri, 07 Apr 2017 17:30 UTC
Wildfires USA March 2017
Planetary environmental chaos continued unabated this month. Several spectacular fireballs were seen from one end of the world to the other. Wildfires ravaged several mid-West states while unusually strong winds hit Illinois and New York. Madagascar got slammed by a ferocious storm as did Brazil, New Zealand and France.

Severe flooding hit several parts of the globe, but the worst affected was Peru where dozens of people died and hundreds of thousands have been left with no homes. With freak tidal waves from Iran to South Africa, strange 'gas' explosions in the UK and methane gas leaks in Russia, not to mention snow off the coast of Africa and lightning scoring direct strikes on cars, March was a pretty intense month for the planet and its inhabitants.
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Fire

Dramatic videos show wildfires blazing across the west of Ireland

Erica Doyle Higgins
The Irish Post
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:21 UTC
The fire rips through the rural Gaeltacht areas of Galway last weekend.
© Enda Cunningham/TwitterThe fire rips through the rural Gaeltacht areas of Galway last weekend.
Dramatic videos have captured the scenes as wild fire ripped through gorse in rural West of Ireland areas over the weekend.

Fire and Rescue teams in Co. Galway were called to two areas of the Gaelteacht, Toureen yesterday and Baile na hAbhainn on Saturday, March 25 as they were engulfed by wildfire.

Although the Toureen and Baile na hAbhainn fires were captured on video, fire services also attended blazes in Loughrea, Clifton, Costello Connemara, Tuam, and Gort.
Thank you to Galway Fire and Rescue for their difficult work last night in tackling the gorse fires and preventing spread to homes. pic.twitter.com/H3jJIMRTNm
— Enda Cunningham (@endacunningham) March 26, 2017
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