Now past a year into this pandemic hellscape, another dystopian anniversary is inching closer — the one-year anniversary since 2020’s historic wildfire season laid waste to millions of acres across California.
By the end of 2020, CALFIRE estimated nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4.2 million acres (more than 4% of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land), making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in the state’s modern history. California’s August Complex fire has been described as the first “gigafire,” a fire that’s collectively burned over 1 million acres. Bay Area skies turned orange. Dozens of lives were lost. Our state’s environment suffered a devastating blow that will linger for years, if not decades, to come.
Since it ended, our region has been #blessed with amazing weather. But you may have noticed: We’ve gotten very little rain. So going into 2021’s fire season, what are we in for? Turns out, this year may be even worse.
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One piece of evidence for this: January of this year alone saw 297 wildfires in California — nearly tripling the five-year average for that month. (In January of 2020, there were 97 wildfires that burned 22 acres; 1,171 acres were charred this January, statewide.)
And then there’s also the sheer lack of rainfall we’ve experienced this year.
So far in 2021, parts of the North Bay near Santa Rosa are missing nearly 20 inches of annual rainfall, which is a massive amount and has only worsened drought conditions and wildfire concerns. Though the Bay Area and San Francisco itself fared better than more northern counties — yearly rainfall has since fallen between eight inches and 12 inches, depending on the local metro — drought conditions have remained unchanged since October of last year. That’s even after an atmospheric river drenched much of the region in late January.
The state’s climate situation at large is on the brink of collapse. California has already warmed one to two degrees since the beginning of the 20th century as a result of the human-caused buildup of greenhouse gases. According to a state science assessment: Denizens of California could see temperatures rise between 5.6 degrees and 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit on average by 2100 (depending on how much pollution humanity has released into the atmosphere), with each year leading up to that marker experiencing significantly drier, harsher, hotter summer months.
Couple all of this with warming temperatures with shifts in jet stream currents (that will divert even more moisture from California), and it’s clear there’s a good chance we’re going to experience worse wildfires than 2020’s in years to come — which may include this one.
Stock up on air purifiers and air conditioners now, and continue to educate yourself on how you can, individually, help fight climate change and hold those in power accountable to steer us away from the looming iceberg that is a climate catastrophe.
