Early wildfires are raging across Arizona and California as the trinity of wildfires, drought, heat and gusty winds are converging once again creating ideal conditions for rapid spread. Alaska using dogs to protect firefighters from bears

Firemen battle the great Porter Ranch fire last year.

Another horror show has arrived which could well take our minds off Covid-19, Civil war or WWIII and it's earlier than usual.

Here we go again and this year they are early with a long hot summer ahead. On November the 8th 2019, California's biggest and most ruinous wildfire of the year, a wind-driven blaze that scorched 120 square miles (310 square kilometres) was declared fully contained and extinguished, however, a new horror show was just beginning in New South Wales, Australia.

According to authorities at the time, an "unprecedented" (90) number of emergency-level wildfires were streaking across New South Wales, Australia in drought-affected areas aided by gusty winds and 35 deg C (95 deg F) heat. There were reports of people trapped in their homes in several places, with fire crews unable to reach them due to the strength of the fires. We all know the outcome of those unprecedented fires in Australia which went on to destroy an incredible 21% of its temperate forests and killed more than a billion animals. 

Back to the future, namely June 19, 2020. Early wildfires are raging across Arizona and California as the trinity of wildfires, drought, heat and gusty winds are converging once again creating ideal conditions for rapid spread.

According to Reuters, so far more than 2,000 were evacuated from three large wildfires in Arizona on Thursday as dry conditions and gusty winds whipped blazes across the U.S. Southwest. Over 1,500 residents fled small communities in mountains about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Phoenix, Arizona, as a wildfire grew to an area larger than the city of Detroit overnight, fire officials reported. Firefighters battling the Bush Fire faced gusting winds, low relative humidity and triple-digit temperatures as flames leapt through piñon pine and juniper in the Tonto National Forest. The fire, which began with a vehicle blaze, was the largest of 37 fires burning in the United States at 114,941 acres (46,515 hectares) and already the seventh-largest in Arizona history, according to National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and National Weather Service (NWS) data. “We have hotter temperatures approaching,” said Marvin Percha, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix, forecasting above-average temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) by Monday. Around a dozen other fires burned in Arizona as it faced another record daily rise in coronavirus cases on Thursday. The Mangum Fire had blackened 56,780 acres (22,980 hectares) around 40 miles (65 km) north of the Grand Canyon, forcing 230 people to leave their homes. Four hundred homes were evacuated for the Bighorn Fire north of Tucson, which had burned 23,892 acres (9,669 hectares)

To the west, much of California remained under a “red flag warning” for erratic gusty winds, around half a dozen small fires burning up and down the state. Alaska reported dozens of small blazes and the use of dogs to protect wildland firefighters from bears. Karelian Bear Dogs, a Finnish breed known for their fearless nature, were flown to a firefighting camp to protect personnel and supplies from the intruding animals, according to fire authorities.

Wildfires 2020

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