HEAT CONTINUES TO ROAST WEST, FUELING DROUGHT, BLAZES

How temperatures across the United States varied from normal during July 2015, with red showing warmer temperatures and blue cooler.
NOAA VIEW

HEAT CONTINUES TO ROAST WEST, FUELING DROUGHT, BLAZES

Thousands of firefighters battled raging wildfires on Sunday and Monday in drought-parched California, where officials evacuated entire neighborhoods and closed miles of highway in the path of the inferno, which has claimed at least one life. See How Drought Is Changing California
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Some 6,000 homes were evacuated as 21 large fires burned in the bone-dry state, which is in the throes of a historic drought. A total of 121,000 acres (49,000 hectares) of land have burned so far, according to figures provided by the state. California Drought by the Numbers
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Gov. Jerry Brown's office said that some 9,600 people were battling the fires early Sunday. Dry lightning strikes sparked most of the fires, while the causes of others remained unknown. But authorities said they did not suspect foul play. Thousands of lightning bolts since Thursday caused hundreds of smaller fires throughout the state, but most of the blazes were concentrated in the north, California fire chiefs said. Civilizations That Withered in Drought
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"Our firefighters have been working extensively throughout the last two weeks, working hard to contain these fires. The weather has not been so kind," CAL FIRE spokeswoman Lynnette Round told AFP. "The dry, warm windy conditions then the dry lightning hitting, it just fuels those fires." California Drought Resembles Worst in Millennium
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Brown's office said neighboring Nevada and Colorado had also committed resources to battle the blazes. A total of 24 homes and 26 outbuildings, which included barns and sheds, were destroyed in the community of Lower Lake, home to the picturesque Mendocino National Forest. CAL FIRE said the Rocky Fire had grown to 46,000 acres and was only five percent contained. Its cause was still under investigation, the agency said. Stretches of Highway 20 were closed in both directions, spelling weekend travel misery for motorists. 'Unprecedented' Drought Looms for Western US
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But late Sunday, CALFIRE had some better news on other fronts: the Lowell fire, in Nevada county, was 85 percent contained; the Wragg fire in Napa was 95 percent contained; and the Fern fire in Shasta county was 60 percent contained. Witnesses described dramatic scenes as thick smoke from the giant fire turned day into night and flames swallowed up large tracts of woodland and forest. Vehicles had been left to the flames, abandoned and burnt-out. On Friday, Brown declared a state of emergency and the California National Guard was called in, underlining the scale of the threat facing the state.
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Firefighter Dave Ruhl, 38, from South Dakota, was killed Thursday while fighting the Frog Fire in the Modoc National Forest outside Alturas. "California's severe drought and extreme weather have turned much of the state into a tinderbox," Brown said in a statement. "Our courageous firefighters are on the front lines and we'll do everything we can to help them. Firefighter Ruhl will be remembered for his service and bravery and we extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues with the U.S. Forest Service," Brown said in a separate statement. Wildfires are a fact of life in much of California, but were far worse than usual this year because of bone-dry conditions, with the state gripped by a fourth year of record drought.
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The U.S. West was once again a land of extremes in July. From Alaska to the Pacific Northwest, July was unusually hot, with some spots recording daily and monthly heat records, while other parts of California got a rare deluge.

The heat across much of the West has done no favors for the deep drought and has helped to fuel a surge in wildfires, which have raged across Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and Northern California in recent weeks.

A deeper dive into data recently released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that both Oregon and Washington were record warm from January through July, while Alaska and California have had their second-warmest year to date. (2015 had been running ahead of the record heat of 2014 for California, but a return to more normal conditions in July has caused it to drop in the rankings.)

18 WILDFIRES RAGE ACROSS CALIFORNIA: PHOTOS
Salem and Eugene, Ore., both saw their warmest July on record, while Portland recorded its second warmest, according to the National Weather Service. Eugene saw a record number of days with temperatures that topped 100F and on July 31, the town of McMinnville was the same temperature — 106°F — as Phoenix, Ariz., and Las Vegas.

July was the all-time warmest month in Seattle, besting the previous record-holder, August 1967, the NWS said. By July 31, the city had recorded 11 days this year with temperatures above 90°F, which was more than the number of such days during the entire period of 1997 to 2003.

One of the main culprits behind these extended scorching conditions is a large pool of unusually warm Pacific Ocean waters — colloquially termed “the blob” — as well as persistent high-pressure systems that can trap and intensity hot weather. An El Niño has also boosted temperatures, and could help push 2015 to top 2014 as the hottest year on record globally. The background warming of the planet from the excess heat trapped by accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has also upped the odds of such record-high temperatures.

There is the potential for several of these western states to see their warmest year on record. Oregon is on pace to best its previous hottest year, 1992, currently running about 0.5°F ahead it, Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, said.

CALIFORNIA FIRES RAGE AMID HISTORIC DROUGHT: PHOTOS

“It’s still a bit early to make the call, but all signs point to us finishing at or near the top with El Niño and the blob,” she said in an email. “Put it this way: It definitely won’t be record coolest.”

California will be a close call: Above-average temperatures are predicted for the coming months, “which would mean a neck-and-neck race for warmest year on record,” NOAA climatologist Jake Crouch said in an email. “August-December was really warm last year in California, so the rest of 2015 would have to be fairly warm for this year to take the warmest year on record for the state.”

The heat is continuing to exacerbate the drought in the region, with new water-use restrictions recently put in place in some coastal Oregon towns.

That drought, combined with the heat, has raised the risk of wildfires and been a major factor in several large fires that have burned in Alaska and from Northern California to Montana, NOAA said. In Alaska, nearly 5 million acres have burned so far. California currently has 18 wildfires blazing; the biggest fire has been the Rocky Fire, which as of Aug. 7 had burned nearly 70,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes.

STRASTOSPHERIC INVASIONS STOKE CALIFORNIA FIRES
Southern California has fared a bit better, as a surge of moisture brought by the remnants of Hurricane Dolores ushered in an unusual spate of July storms. While the rain that fell wouldn’t sound like much in the wetter East, it was a considerable amount for the California dry season. The 1.71 inches of rain that fell in San Diego in July made that its wettest July on record and amounted to 5,700 percent more rain than the city typically sees in that month, NOAA said.

There are high hopes in California that the robust El Niño event will continue through the year and bring strong winter precipitation to help put a dent into the years-long drought there. However, the warm coastal waters could mean that any precipitation that does fall would do so as rain and not snow, which is keenly needed in the mountains to help provide a source of water in the warm months. How that will play out is still too early to tell.

More From Climate Central:

Record Hot First Half May Herald Warmest Year Yet
Record Warmth Continues to Bake U.S. West
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