#PacificWatch: Summer season wildfires, droughts, heat and brownouts. @JCBliss

Photo: U.S. Marines with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 364 and Marine Medium Helicopter Training Squadron (HMMT) 164, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) from Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Pendleton assist in the efforts to combat the Tomahawk fires on MCB Camp Pendleton, Calif., May 16, 2014. 3rd MAW partnered with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to conduct aerial firefighting against several wildfires ablaze in San Diego County. (U.S. Marine Corps photograph by Sgt. Keonaona C. Paulo, 3rd MAW COMCAM/RELEASED)

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#PacificWatch: Summer season wildfires, droughts, heat and brownouts.  @JCBliss


As Lava fire grows, another fire in Northern California explodes overnight -- As the lightning-sparked Lava fire in Northern California continues to grow, another blaze is spreading in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest amid bone-dry vegetation, scorching temperatures and gusty winds. Los Angeles Times

Grocery stores are pulling perishable food, covering aisles in plastic sheets, and running sprinklers on their roofs as they battle a record heat wave - Grocery stores in Washington have been forced to pull perishable goods from shelves and turn off entire refrigerated sections as the state experiences record-shattering temperatures. On Monday, several areas in Oregon and Washington broke records as temperatures rose to as high as 116 degrees. The heat has caused several power outages throughout the region and taken a toll on local businesses. Business Insider

Intense heat from Northern California fires have created multiple pyrocumulus clouds -- Plumes of superheated air rising from some of the major wildfires burning across Northern California — including the Lava and Tennant fires — formed multiple pyrocumulus clouds this week, formations that can help fires spread more rapidly. San Francisco Chronicle 

California pleads for more power as summer blackout threat grows, hydro supplies fade - Acknowledging the increasing threat of rolling blackouts this summer, managers of California’s electricity grid issued a rare call for additional power supplies Thursday. Sacramento Bee

Fire season in Northern California: Here are the major blazes burning now -- Three significant wildfires are collectively burning across nearly 32,000 acres of Northern California. Fueled by billowing wind, hot weather and dangerously dry conditions, the blazes are among a constellation of fires that have sprouted up and down the state in recent days. San Francisco Chronicle

Bracing for wildfires, California’s inmate firefighters still denied visitors -- Hundreds of California inmates will charge to the front lines of rapidly spreading wildfires this summer, risking injury and death in exchange for shorter sentences and a few dollars a day. inewsource 

Evacuations being ordered for new wildfire burning in Northern California north of Redding -- The blaze, burning north of Redding, is being called the Salt Fire. U.S. Forest Service officials said the fire is burning east of Interstate 5 near the Salt Creek exit south of Lakehead. Sacramento Bee

Fires: Biden raises firefighters’ pay, Newsom slams Trump’s wildfire management -- With California and much of the West facing serious drought, record heat and wildfire risk, President Biden on Wednesday announced he is raising the pay of federal firefighters, expanding the use of the National Guard to help fight fires and broadening efforts to use federal satellites to detect fires as soon as they start so crews can more quickly limit their spread. San Jose Mercury

California's rain year just ended - and the data shows we're in trouble -- Data shows that for many of the major regions of California, the July 2020-June 2021 rain year was one of the top 10 driest ever. Even more troubling is that the extreme dry spells are starting to stack up, especially in the Sierra Nevada watersheds that supply so much of the state’s water. San Francisco Chronicle