Recently this summer, fire season came early and struck hard.

All across the West, forest fires sprung leaving devastation in their wake. It began with the start of the Ferguson fire near Yosemite National park. When it struck on July 13th, firefighters came from across the nation to put an end to it. It burned 97,000 acres of land and lead to the deaths of two firefighters, Brandon Varney and Brian Hughes.

Then the Carr fire began Monday, July 23, at the forest line near Redding. It started when a car had a mechanical failure that eventually sparked the flame leading to the destruction of 207,000 acres and also killing two firefighters and 7 others. This lead to the evacuation of 92,000 residents as the inferno engulfed the area.

Then San Bernardino National Park near Los Angeles caught fire due to what authorities believe was an arsonist setting ablaze 13,000 acres and forcing 9,000 residents to evacuate the area.

This year has been deemed one of the worst forest fire seasons shockingly after so much rainfall during the spring, and a previous destructive fire season. But how could this have happened?

Well a big contributor has been the arctic heat wave that has come down from the north, and with high winds and dry conditions these were perfect for a major fire season.

With all the fires torching the land in many places and rain returning again, this caused mudslides to occur in many of these mountainous states only causing further havoc.

However as the summer transitions to fall and winter some fires have successfully been put out while others are still burning even now.

Many can only hope 2019 will be more merciful.

Image credit: PCP Fire, “Carr Fire, with a fire whirl crossing the road.”