Hawaii’s Climate-Fire Nexus
World breaks hottest day record
Across the United States millions of residents have experienced, and are experiencing, soaring temperatures and extreme heat. Increasingly all too familiar, scientists around the world have once again linked an increasingly hotter climate to rising global fossil fuel emissions.
The world registered its second hottest day in modern times. That was last Monday, and inching past the previous high record set the previous 24 hours, according to the a European Union’s climate monitoring agency.
Breaking record heat around the world also is responsible for wildfires engulfing parts of the United States, Mediterranean, Russia and Canada, and the accompanying hazardous public health air pollution impacts.
The average global surface air temperature rose to 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday. That was 0.11 F higher than Sunday’s record breaking temperature, according to global temperature data tracked back to 1940. The temperature data includes record breaking temperature highs in the Southern Hemisphere as well, which is currently in its winter season.
La Nina, no longer cooling higher temperatures
What makes this year’s record breaking temperatures so unusual is the world has had in recent-history higher temperatures during which La Niña events were characterized by the cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.
La Niña events typically lead temporarily to cooler temperatures, the 2010-2012 La Niña was notable for occurring during a period of overall rising global temperatures, which affected its impact and intensity, and led to significant weather anomalies globally, including extreme rainfall and flooding in Australia, drought in East Africa, and unusual tropical cyclone activity.
Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University in Germany, said it was “remarkable” that as global temperature rise and records setting heating trends which now breach the traditional cooler phase of the Southern Oscillation climate cycle, the scientific findings are revealing how global heating is now impacting both the hotter El-Nina and cooler La Nino cycles, and manifesting those impacts in the form greater event extremes and consequences.
It doesn’t take a room full scientists to read the obvious evidence; the world’s rising temperatures are the consequences of humans and our accumulative burning of fossil fuels from tailpipe-to-smokestack. And, Hawaii and its remote location are no longer exempt or protected by location from growing global climate impacts and rising temperatures.
The continued global burning of fossil-fueled energy sources has not only disrupted the Earth’s natural climate cycles, but poured gasoline on the fire of summer heating, adding to the frequency and ferocity of destructive fire events and dangerous levels of air pollution.
El Nino and La Nina cycles represent both ends of the oscillating climate system linked to the Pacific Ocean, and each increasingly fueled by rising global temperatures and supercharged by warmer-than-usual ocean water in the Eastern Pacific.
US government urged to declare wildfires, smokes, and extreme heat as major disasters
The risks associated with rising global temperatures and intense weather events are increasingly understood by the global scientific community. The National Weather Service says heat is the leading disaster-related killer in the US, killing more people than hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and fire events combined.
Higher temperatures tend to fuel weather intensity, including wild wind storms, which together fuel more wildfires with greater intensity and impact on property and people. These are lessons now well understood by the residents of Lahaina, and by extension, a greater awareness of changing climate and weather impacts on all residents of Hawaii.
The three most important elements affecting wildland fire behavior are wind, fuel, and moisture. Abundant elements comprising life in Hawaii. Of the three, wind is the most variable and the least predictable. Winds, particularly near the earth’s surface, are strongly affected by the shape of the topography and by local heating and cooling which are highly variable across Hawaii’s island chain, and accounts for much of the state’s island-by-island variability.
Wind affects wildfire in many ways
As our understanding of wind behavior and fire grows, wind carries away moisture-laden air and hastens the drying of forest fuels. Light winds aid certain elements in igniting a fire. The direction a fire spreads is determined mostly by the wind direction. Once a fire is started, wind also aids combustion by increasing the oxygen supply. It further aids fire by spreading burning embers to new fuels, and by bending the flames closer to the unburned fuels ahead of the fire.
Risks associated with intense heat include more wildfires, and poor air quality associated with large scale fires. The high demand for emergency response resources, coupled to a strain on the state’s infrastructure that delivers much needed power to keep vital services operating in an emergency, as with hospitals, schools, and key infrastructure services, for the most part is a work in progress.
Lawmakers and emergency services are increasingly aware of the growing climate and fire threats Hawaii faces. However, the state’s emergency response policy and resources are poorly equipped to address present and future challenges as the consequential and deadly lessons of the Lahaina fire already demonstrated.
Firefighters continue battle against more than 100 blazes burning in the US
Monday, July 29th … Many fires were sparked by the weather, with climate crisis increasing lightning strikes amid blistering heat and dry conditions. The fires are some of more than 100 blazes burning in the US at the moment. Some were lit, but many were sparked by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western US endures blistering heat and bone-dry conditions.
NASA - USFS North American Satellite Fire Map - July 29, 2024
In northern California, the Park fire grew at ferocious speeds to become one of the largest wildfires in the state this year. In southern California, a blaze swept through the historic mining town of Havilah. And in Oregon and Idaho, authorities were assessing the damage caused by several large wildfires raging there.
Winds and temperatures were expected to increase slightly amid a drop in humidity, officials said in an update early Monday. Jay Tracy, a Park fire headquarters spokesperson said…“This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth…It is unparalleled.”
Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the fire, aided by numerous helicopters and air tankers. Reinforcements are expected to give much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since Wednesday.
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