Washington State Braces for ‘Inevitable’ Megafire. Climate Change May Bring It Sooner - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Washington State braces for ‘inevitable’ megafire. Climate change may bring it sooner - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Western Washington state is one of the wettest places in the country. In the North Cascade mountains and on the Olympic Peninsula, lush cedars, ferns and mosses form classic Pacific Northwest rainforests. But even here, climate change is making wildfires more likely. And the state is figuring out how to respond.

Climate-fueled drought primes western Washington forests for next megafire

Longer, hotter summers are drying out the Olympic and Cascade rainforests, pushing Washington officials to plan for the kind of blaze they admit they cannot stop.Rebecca Dzombak reports for The New York Times.In short:The state’s once reliable mid-August “green curtain” now ends weeks earlier, leaving deep moss and cedar duff brittle by July.Recent blazes in the Olympic rainforest and along Interstate 90 show that even the wettest valleys ignite…

Washington state braces for ‘inevitable’ megafire. Climate change may bring it sooner

Global warming is changing fire patterns in the state. Washington’s summers are growing longer, hotter and drier, resulting in an extended fire season with more desiccated fuel available.

Washington state braces for 'Inevitable' Megafire. Climate change may bring it sooner.

Western Washington state is one of the wettest places in the country. In the North Cascade mountains and on the Olympic Peninsula, lush cedars, ferns and mosses form classic Pacific Northwest rainforests. But even here, climate change is making wildfires more likely. And the state is figuring out how to respond.“It used to be that it really wasn’t until mid-August that fuels dried out in western Washington,” said Derek Churchill, a forest health…

Washington state braces for ‘inevitable’ megafire

Famously rainy state is facing longer, hotter and drier fire seasons, raising the risk of a mammoth fire that will be nearly impossible to fight