Apocalypse Now

Life in Mordor. The extreme drought of 2012-2016 left epic numbers of dead, dying, and barely-hanging-on trees. An insoluble problem. And now, fire is solving the problem:

California’s mega-drought officially ended three years ago but may have turned the Creek Fire into a monster.

By killing millions of trees in the Sierra National Forest, the historic drought that ended in 2017 left an incendiary supply of dry fuel that appears to have intensified the fire that’s ravaged more than 140,000 acres in the southern Sierra Nevada, wildfire scientists and forestry experts said Tuesday.

“The energy produced off that is extraordinary,” said Scott Stephens, a wildfire scientist at UC Berkeley. “Large amounts of woody material burning simultaneously.”

What’s more, the Creek Fire is shaping up as a frightening template for other wildfires that could ignite in heavily forested areas that suffered extensive tree loss.

“This might provide this first glimpse into the future we’re in for,” said LeRoy Westerling, a climate and wildfire scientist at UC Merced.

(Photo credit: Rachel Rycerz)