The Lake Mead development over the past few years is totally mindblowing. Lack of water is driving the failure of the hoover dam in a way that was never anticipated (lack of water to generate power).
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With a La Nina Winter expected, we've been warned to expect more power outages than would normally be the case. This is due to excessive heat during the Summer making high growth trees more fragile and likely to fall.Comment
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We've had so many trees fall this summer. It feels crazy. Every time I cycle on a trail a new tree seems to have fallen and blocked it. We had our giant tree fall next to the house and two more small ones in the little wooded area behind the house.
But this is only my second summer here, so I don't know if it's actually normal - after all, the trees generally only live 50 to 100 years, I think, so 1-2% of them should fall every year.
The General Sherman thing is extra strange because I thought the current understanding was that giant sequoias actually needed fire to thrive - they are incredibly fire resilient and their seeds need fire to germinate. Because they need to grow in ground where the underbrush has burned up leaving space and light for saplings. Are they expecting this fire to be particularly hot and damaging?Comment
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Developments in the last few hours have been positive as regards the Park. Fingers crossed.["These trees are adaptive to fire, but not intense fire, so we want to do everything we can to protect these trees as well as all these historic cabins that are on the National Park," said Steven Bekkerus, a public information officer for the KNP Complex Fire.
SB, the number of trees you have lost is a result of a series of storms with unusually high winds. Both the number of storms and the intensity of the winds have been outside of recent experience and we don't have enough data to know if expectations have to be adjusted going forward.
You're likely to lose some more to snow and ice this winter.Comment
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Interesting that they think it's the wind. I was wondering if it was the abnormal amount of rain weakening everything.Comment
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Almost certainly both, but I think the wind had been more importantComment
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Even old or diseased trees rarely fall. They generally deteriorate. This process mulches the ground around them as they slowly rot, all the while forming skags for fungi. They also feed insects, which in turn feed wildlife, particularly woodpeckers.Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
Aside from imported pests. Large, healthy trees usually fall for climatic reasons. Excessive heat, cold, or strong winds from unusual directions.Comment
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The Castle Fire wiped out 10 percent of the world populationMore than a dozen groves of giant sequoias may lose significant numbers of trees in the wildfires now raging in the southern Sierra Nevada, even as fire crews succeed, sometimes dramatically, in keeping flames at bay in the most popular stands.
Scientists surveying the damage of two active fires say the biggest losses will likely be at the south end of Giant Sequoia National Monument, where already 29 large trees have been listed as dead and many more are expected to follow.
The Windy Fire there has exploded to 87,901 acres, and it’s burning out of control through several less-known, but still-towering sequoia stands, including the stately Packsaddle Grove. The fire was just 25% contained on Wednesday.
We should probably anticipate numbers (mortality rates) similar to what came out of the Castle Fire,” said Garrett Dickman, a botanist at Yosemite National Park, referring to last year’s blaze that in some spots killed more than 50% of the sequoia trees. “I really hope to be wildly off on this, but I don’t know.”Comment
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Yeah, extreme high winds fuelling a nasty fire. Someone I kind of know is our there (fortunately safe right now) but has go-bags at the ready.Comment
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That’s utterly disastrous and in winter.Comment
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Just short of 1000 buildings destroyed, the vast majority of which were homes.
Three people still missing.
And it is starting g to look as if it was deliberately set.Comment
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A friend's sister lost her home in that fire.Comment
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Heat wave for the East Coast.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weath...ve-east-coast/
And drought for the West Coast, though maybe not as bad as last year?
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Curre...itor.aspx?West
The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire exceeded 298,000 acres burned, becoming the largest wildfire in modern New Mexico history.Comment
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Yeah. The weekend is going to be enervating here in New England. We're forecast 95F tomorrow and 96F on Sunday, along with high humidity. I'm meant to be cycling tomorrow morning - which will be very tough. And meant to be playing golf on Sunday which (because it starts later) might be a really daft idea.Comment
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Having unseasonal temperatures in the 90s be preceded by violent thunderstorms is a very strange weather pattern for this regionComment
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Lytton BC, which was pretty much wiped out in the fires this time last year, is under threat again:
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