From Jim Steele

Climate alarmists, like Dr Daniel Swain https://weatherwest.com have pushed a false narrative to most media outlets that California’s summer heat wave, made worse by rising CO2, caused drier vegetation that made the Park Fire one of California’s biggest. But the science exposes his false narrative as just more climate crisis fear mongering.

Fire science has determined fuel moisture content, wind speeds, and fuel density are the primary determinants of wildfire spread. The Park Fire rapidly spread through grasslands and shrubland and oak woodlands dominated by 1-hour and 10-hour fuels. That means climate change is totally irrelevant, as only one day of hot dry weather rapidly reduces the moisture content of dead grass and leaf debris (1-hour fire fuels), making those fire fuels highly flammable.

Published scientific research (Masinda 2021) has determined the moisture content threshold for rapid ignition by a single match for dead pine needles is 33%, oak leaves 26%, grass 22%. The Park Fire, started by an arsonist, began in a park in the town of Chico California. So, what was the fuel moisture around Chico?

Average July temperatures for Chico are 98 degrees Fahrenheit while Relative Humidity falls to 28%. Numerous studies of hay drying have determined at 95 F and 30% RH, grass fuel moisture content falls to 5% (graphic A), causing grass fires to very easily ignite and naturally spread rapidly. How much drier were the fire fuels due to the heat wave?

At 5% fuel moisture, dead fuels hold the moisture more tightly to the vegetations fibers. Thus, as Graphic B shows (from National Wildfire Coordinating Group), as relative humidity falls higher temperature differences have less of an effect on Fuel Moisture Content. At 30% RH, a temperature increases from 75F to 100F, reduces fuel moisture by less than a half %. Despite the narrative by climate alarmists like Swain, the California heat wave had virtually no impact on fuel moisture and the Park Fire’s rapid spread. Climate change is not making wildfires worse!!!