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Who or what ignited the Creek Fire? Early photos help narrow the possibilities

October 9, 2020
The Creek Fire has been raging for a month, and if authorities know what caused the 322,089-acre megafire in the mountains northeast of Fresno, they’re not spilling the beans. “The investigation is ongoing,” remains the official statement from Cal Fire and...

Mega fires and mega floods: California’s new extremes require a response of similar scale

October 9, 2020
  By Joshua Viers and Joshua Viers is director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Science (CITRIS) at UC Merced, where he is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, jviers@ucmerced.edu.      ...

4 Million Acres Have Burned In California. Why That's The Wrong Number To Focus On

October 9, 2020
Wildfires in the West are producing a parade of chilling statistics. More than 4 million acres have burned in California, the most in recorded history. Colorado saw it's largest wildfire and in Northern California, the August Complex has passed the one-million-acre mark, generating an...

New Project Focuses on Life in Soil in the Earth’s Critical Zone

October 6, 2020
Since 2007, UC Merced researchers have been extremely productive in the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), delving into investigations of hydrology, climate change, geology, biology and more. But the National Science Foundation, which funded the CZOs, is decommissioning the sites and...

New Project Focuses on Life in Soil in the Earth’s Critical Zone

October 6, 2020
Since 2007, UC Merced researchers have been extremely productive in the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), delving into investigations of hydrology, climate change, geology, biology and more. But the National Science Foundation, which funded the CZOs, is decommissioning the sites...

Skelton: California is failing to treat wildfires with respect they deserve

October 6, 2020
California should put the same effort into preparing buildings to survive wildfires that it has retrofitting for earthquakes.  Thats the view of University of California Merced fire scientist Crystal Kolden, a former former firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service. She makes sense....

Megafires are Breaking Climate Models, Highlighting California's Need to Focus on Prevention

October 2, 2020
Michael Jones was up the entire night Sunday watching the Glass Fire take off in Napa and Sonoma counties. At more than 42,000 acres Tuesday it’s damaged at least eight wineries, 80 other homes and businesses and forced tens of thousands to flee. “It's blown into Santa Rosa...

The West's Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works

October 2, 2020
ON THE WINDY, hot day of July 26, 2018, as record 113-­degree temperatures baked Redding, California, in the northern Sacramento Valley, Eric Knapp toiled in an air-conditioned government office. After work, he planned to meet his wife and 3-year-old daughter, and some family friends, for...

How wine country became the epicenter for fires in California

October 2, 2020
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Perhaps no part of California has felt more threatened by fire in recent years than the vast expanse of wine country and the Redwood Empire north of San Francisco. More than 9,000 structures were lost and dozens of people were killed in 2017, when fires swept through...

Climate Change Hits Poor and People of Color Hardest

October 2, 2020
People of color and the poor are the hardest hit by the effects of climate change, a panel of experts said Friday. And buyouts and programs of assistance to help people impacted by climate change-related disasters generally favor the wealthy and white communities in the U.S., not the people who...

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