Cameron Peak Fire Now Largest In History Of Colorado At 200,000 Acres & Growing (Boulder County)

[hatrack]

EDIT

Already, firefighters are battling to contain the Cameron Peak Fire, which has burned since August and grown into the largest fire recorded in Colorado history. On Sunday, it eclipsed 200,000 acres. And the latest fire spread rapidly, engulfing more than 8,000 acres by Sunday.

“It just exploded,” Mike Wagner, division chief for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department, said in a briefing late Saturday. “It’s been so dry and just such high fire danger combined with lack of firefighting resources because of the number of fires not only in Colorado but across the West.”

EDIT

Typically, the state would see the arrival of mountain snowfall by October. Instead, there has been little to no precipitation in areas where the fires have burned. “It is very unusual for wildfires to start after October,” said Jennifer Balch, the director of the Earth Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. Scientists say that it has been an unsettling development, yet also one that has been anticipated as the region has been in the grip of drought and as temperatures rise globally.

“This is exactly what we expect from climate change,” Professor Buma said. “It’s not going to get any better — that’s the hard part. It’s becoming more and more regular, and that time in the fall when they can breathe a sigh of relief is being pushed out further and further.” The dry conditions and powerful gusts of winds, reaching roughly 70 miles per hour, created a dangerous recipe for the rapid spread of wildfires. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/colorado-wildfires-cameron-peak.html

[callous taoboy]

1. My niece almost had to evacuate last night-

They were saved by some cooler temps and some mist.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. eep.

[mountain grammy]

3. We have fires burning all around us.

October was not a fire month, but now it is.. 50 degrees at 11pm last night with a 15 mph wind. We're above 8000 feet. 35 years in Colorado, never had fires like this in October.. We're packed and ready. Waiting for president fuckwit to come and laugh at us.