Californians have been concerned about wildfires for a long time, but the past two years have left many of them fearful and questioning whether any solutions to the fire crisis truly exist.
Continue reading →It might sound like a bad movie, but extreme wildfires can create their own weather – including fire tornadoes.
It happened in California as a heat wave helped to fuel hundreds of wildfires across the region, many of them sparked by lightning. One fiery funnel cloud on Aug. 15 was so powerful, the National Weather Service issued what’s believed to be its first fire tornado warning.
Continue reading →Shrublands are relatively arid regions of Earth where it is too dry for trees to flourish. Often overlooked, they take second or third place to forests or grasslands when it comes to beauty contests. They are a mix of shrubs and grasses, spanning the subtropics to the temperate latitudes. Shrublands have surprising biodiversity considering their parched appearance. They are a place of heat and drought, yet still abundant with life.
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