2020 wildfire season: reflections on northern California wildfires (Aug 21st)

For the last couple of days, my thoughts have been on the severe wildfire outbreak in California. As I sit here in (for the moment) relatively tranquil New Jersey, I find that my words our wholly inadequate. A helicopter pilot was killed in a fatal crash on August 19th (ABC30 report), a PG&E employee also died. At least two other fatalities have been reported. As usual, Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today does his usual good job of reporting, here is his August 21st article. Thousands of people are under evacuation orders and this during a pandemic. 

Here is a brief summary from a CAL FIRE August 21st update:

Nearly 12,000 firefighters are battling nearly two dozen major fires and complexes across California. Overnight firefighters continued to make progress despite extreme weather conditions. Since the lightning siege started on Saturday, August 15, 2020 there have been nearly 12,000 lightning strikes. During this time-period, there have been more than 560 new wildfires, most of which have been contained due to aggressive firefighting. Those fires have burned over 771,00 acres in total.

Thanks to Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day newsletter for August 21st, I found a satellite image taken from GOES-17 of smoke over California from the wildfires. I obtained the image on August 20th from NASA's Earth Observatory website. They say in part:

The map below shows the concentration of black carbon particulates—commonly called soot—at 12:30 a.m. on August 20. Black carbon can harm humans and other animals by entering the lungs and bloodstream; it also plays a role in global warming. The black carbon data come from the GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) model, which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. In this case, GEOS-FP assimilated fire and aerosol observations with meteorological data on air temperature, moisture, and winds to project the behavior and extent of the plume.

I want to acknowledge and thank all the wildland firefighters in the air and on the ground working in very difficult conditions. I understand that there may not be enough of you. You are working very hard. I offer my prayers for all the residents affected by these fires and for the firefighters. Heed evacuation orders. Stay safe. Take care of each other.