I often note that CA seismic codes are required everywhere, even far from fault lines, and argue we should do the same for wildfire. Even though this was only a small shake here in Fresno, I felt it 175 miles away. Hazards travel and have far-reaching effects!

Dr. Wendy Bohon@drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 4mo ago

M 5.7 earthquake 18 km SE of Silver Springs, Nevada I felt it here in Sacramento!!! earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

As a fire scientist, I am devastated for my many good friends and colleagues who will be affected by the mass closure of so many research stations and offices. Many will leave the agency. USFS has pioneered so much foundational fire science. The consequences of this will be catastrophic.

The presser was to confuse everyone and bury the announcement about dismantling the US Forest Service. "the Forest Service will begin transitioning to a state-based organizational model..." HQ in Utah. The state that sued for state control over Public Lands. www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...

When I was in my 20s and spent thousands of hours driving all over the country, I had ample time to listen to a LOT of music. Todd Snider was a poet of a songwriter whose lyrics and rambling stories between songs made the miles go by quickly. One of my favorites. RIP.

Matthew Hurteau@mhurteau.bsky.social · 9mo ago

RIP Todd Snider. Many great shows

Published today: our new paper showing a 44-year trend of increasing global wildfire disasters (fatalities and economic losses) due to climate change-induced extreme weather. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires

Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

science.org

We have a 5.9kW solar system for 2,700 sq ft house in HOT 🥵 Fresno, CA. We charge a plug-in hybrid daily. Current house: $24/yr for electricity (PG&E) Old house (no solar): >$6,000/yr Our $20K system is paid for in ~3 yrs. Solar is a scientific miracle. www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Trump is trying to kill solar power—here's how to fight back

Rooftop solar is a clean power miracle. Why are we killing it with red tape?

motherjones.com

It's 2025, and it's still climate change driving major forest loss through wildfires. With insights from @climate-guy.bsky.social and @calxcunningham.bsky.social @ucmerced.bsky.social @utas.edu.au www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/c...

Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests

nytimes.com

I've been calling myself a pyrogeographer for over two decades, and now we have a journal just for us, led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social (full disclosure: I sit on the editorial board). We warmly invite you to submit to #Pyrogeography today! www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...

Happy to share our new paper: we show that human-caused climate change is raising the odds of extreme climate-driven fire years across forested regions of the globe @climate-guy.bsky.social @pyrogeog.bsky.social rdcu.be/evJkX #ClimateChange #Wildfires

Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally

Nature Communications - The authors show that extreme fire years in global forests align with rare fire weather extremes. Climate change has made such extremes 88-152% more probable. These findings...

rdcu.be

Also, if you're not following @mattwjones.bsky.social please give him a follow. He's the Editor-In-Chief of the new journal Pyrogeography!

Dr. Crystal A. Kolden@pyrogeog.bsky.social · last yr.

More amazing teamwork led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social to develop a global database of prescribed fire.

More amazing teamwork led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social to develop a global database of prescribed fire.

Matt Jones@mattwjones.bsky.social · last yr.

New study from my group with stellar international team. A multi-national dataset of prescribed #fires compiled and standardised from national records, with contemporaneous #weather conditions, land cover, fuel bed type, ++, included with each record. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My theory: some DOGE minion Googled "Hatch Act" and saw the 1939 law preventing political actions by govt employees and said "Let's cut it!" Not realizing, of course, that the 1887 Hatch Act funds agricultural research at Land Grant schools that directly benefits farmers.🙄

Hannah Frank@hannaherf.bsky.social · last yr.

They’re trying to quietly eliminate Hatch Act funding for agricultural schools???? @altusda.altgov.info @aaas.org @asa-cssa-sssa.bsky.social

Spent a delightful week in Vienna last month for EGU. What a model for people (not car)-oriented living! 1) Huge car-free areas in the historic city center 2) Amazing public transit system (my 10-yr olds LOVED the subway) 3) Phenomenal bike paths Rating: 14/10 - I would live there! #waroncars

feels like a good day to re-up this reporting. “Every single state in the US where we have vegetation, and particularly where we have vegetation intermixing with communities, we have the potential for extreme fire disasters,” @pyrogeog.bsky.social www.vox.com/climate/2386...

Wildfires are coming... for New Jersey?

Climate change is expanding the list of areas at risk for the worst wildfires.

vox.com

TOMORROW! There's still time to register: 1pm - Introductions and talk by John Mills of @watchduty.org 2pm - A look ahead at the 2025 Fire Season in CA with @climate-guy.bsky.social 2:15pm - Mitigating smoke with Dr. Sandie Ha 2:30pm - Q&A with all speakers MEDIA is welcome. Please join us!

Dr. Crystal A. Kolden@pyrogeog.bsky.social · last yr.

On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on: 1) The upcoming fire season in CA 2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke We're streaming it online - join us!

Climate change continued to have unpredictable impacts on wildfire in 2024. Unexpected shifts, like the Americas producing 40% of C emissions (normally it's <25%), and anomalous events, like the fatal Feb '24 Chile fire or the Pantanal wetlands burning, occur more often.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment@natrevearthenviron.nature.com · last yr.

Kolden et al. document 2024 wildfires, finding: - 367 Mha burned - Burned area decreased 5.4% from 2023 - Fires released an estimate 1965 Tg C www.nature.com/articles/s43... (rdcu.be/ehnTP) @pyrogeog.bsky.social @climate-guy.bsky.social @mattwjones.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social [6/n]

Kolden et al. document 2024 wildfires, finding: - 367 Mha burned - Burned area decreased 5.4% from 2023 - Fires released an estimate 1965 Tg C www.nature.com/articles/s43... (rdcu.be/ehnTP) @pyrogeog.bsky.social @climate-guy.bsky.social @mattwjones.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social [6/n]

Wildfires in 2024 - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Wildfire burned area was 367 Mha in 2024, ranked 17th since 2001. An estimated 1,965 Tg C was released from these fires, 41% of which came from the Americas, far exceeding their usual 25% contribution...

nature.com

On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on: 1) The upcoming fire season in CA 2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke We're streaming it online - join us!

This is your regular reminder that ALL buildings in California must build to seismic codes, but only those in CALFIRE's designated high hazard areas must build to WUI fire codes. Why the discrepancy? Who the hell knows...but it means the cycle of rebuild and burn again will continue.

Lauren Sommer@lsommer.bsky.social · last yr.

California just released new maps on where homes have to be built with wildfire-resistant materials. But the majority of homes destroyed in the Eaton fire won’t have to use those building codes www.npr.org/2025/03/25/n...

Ed Abbey words to live by: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” “Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.” “Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.”

Worried about wildfires this year? You should be. Preparedness is the absolutely most effective way to mitigate disasters, and the firing of thousands of employees and hiring freeze means that there is almost no one to prepare. WHEN wildfires start (not if), suppression will be a mess.

Jim Whittington🔥@jimwhittington.bsky.social · last yr.

IMTs are quietly talking about what the current political environment means for this year's wildland fire suppression efforts, but it deserves a larger and more public consideration. 1/

"Training is preparation for the known; education is preparation for the unknown." Just remember that we train AI, but we educate humans.

Out today in @globalchangebio.bsky.social is our (brief!) rapid-response piece on the broader context surrounding the January 2025 Southern California wildfires & relevance of wet-to-dry hydroclimate whiplash to fire both locally and globally on a warming Earth. [1/8] onlinelibrary.wiley....

Wanted to reshare the webinar event associated with this white paper release. You can watch the event here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkAP... All of the messages discussed by me and the panelists require greater focus after what we have just experienced.

A New Strategy for Addressing the Wildfire Epidemic in California | Webinar

YouTube video by Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

youtube.com

Dr. Crystal A. Kolden@pyrogeog.bsky.social · 2y ago

For the thousands of people asking "How do we fix this #wildfire problem?", @michaelwara.bsky.social wrote an excellent white paper 3 years ago that neatly lays out the basics of the multipronged approach. It still holds. @stanfordwoods.bsky.social hosted a discussion panel as well.

🔥 Fire peeps... @wildland-zko.bsky.social joined us. Give him a follow.

Zeke Lunder - The Lookout@wildland-zko.bsky.social · 2y ago

@weatherwest.bsky.social I just set up an account here. Can you let your followers know I'm on here, now?

I am shocked* that the Trillion Trees guy ends up being a problem dude. They won't comment, but anyone with that kind of funding record doesn't get let go without doing something VERY, VERY BAD. *Note: I am not shocked at all

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 2y ago

Someone who has brought in tens of millions of dollars and has 40 to 60 people in his group is obviously a big deal at any institution. So, for that institution to let him go says a lot. But another institution is just going to take him in and act like nothing happened? #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky

Access damage info directly from the incident pages: #PalisadesFire details | www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20... #EatonFire details | www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20... We’re here to support you on the road to recovery. Stay safe and informed!

In Sept 2020, in the wake of a record CA fire season, I wrote an opinion piece for @nature.com about the need to focus on the human metrics of fire, not the acres burned. The #LAFires underscore that our obsession with size fails to convey the scope of the impacts. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41....

Wildfires: count lives and homes, not hectares burnt

Smarter ways to assess fires will bring better methods of preventing damage.

nature.com

An important facet of the fire building code discussion is that it only applies to areas that CALFIRE deems high fire hazard; it's not blanket. Many urban homes burned in recent years were't included. For seismic codes, every house in the state must comply no matter how far from a fault line.

Heatmap News@heatmap.news · 2y ago

California’s 7A building code is the most robust in the country. Here’s why that didn’t stop the LA fires, from @zeitlin.bsky.social.

The @calfire.bsky.social DINS program is the best post-fire data collection program in the world. I wish every state would adopt this, we would learn so much more. Structure losses (so far) for #PalisadesFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/palisades-fi... For #EatonFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/eaton-fire/

CAL FIRE@calfire.bsky.social · 2y ago

CAL FIRE’s Damage Inspection Teams (DINS) are on the ground in the Los Angeles area, assessing homes and properties impacted by recent fires. youtu.be/kI_nZwWONOE #LAFires