Jeepers, that's a radical change in climate..........

No Chris. It's a radical change in WEATHER

T.A.

In the Tarvisio forest in North East Italy, due to an old Austrian law, citizen have the right to a sizable amount of wood every year to keep warm, so it is the best watched forest in the world and very few fires happen. Today of course people sell their wood and buy methane gas.
Tullio

Yes, intensive management, and removal of a sensible amount of material greatly reduces the risk, especially of a devastating fire. You still have a healthy forest, but not so much free fuel that when a fire does start it burns so hot that it kills everything, and is impossible to control. A fire burning in a more open and managed forest may only burn off the grass, dead leaves and undergrowth. It doesn't reach the crowns of the trees and kill them, it doesn't kill the seeds and roots of plants, or animals in burrows. It's also a controllable size when it approaches buildings where it NEEDS to be controlled.

But for so long the general thinking has been that cutting trees is BAD, and forest fires need to be put out ASAP. Combine those two strategies, and you create a time-bomb of flammable material. Add the increasing spread of houses out into those forested areas...

The "Green" movement has a lot to answer for in these fires. If better management (sustainable harvesting) where more widespread they effect of fires would be a lot less.

Ian

Etna is erupting now, but it is not a dangerous volcano. Vesuvius, though silent since 1944, is much more dangerous and so are the Campi Flegrei, near Naples, which might hold a super volcano like Yellowstone and Toba.
Tullio

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Volcanoes are the Earths safety valves, much like those on steam engines to stop the boiler exploding. Just don#t sit on one!

As ring of fire area resident, I know of 1 volcanic cinder cone nearby, but I think it's extinct as it has no hotspot or plume from within the earths mantle anymore...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Chris we had a major adjustment here in 1989.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

It affect Setizens. Gary had a major shake up in 1994(?). Plus it has be rattling along the border of Mexico too.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

I also think irresponsible people cause the start of a lot of fires as well. Broken glass at a picnic site behaves like a magnifying glass in the sun, we all know about carelessly discarded cigarette ends, and recently military target range firing caused Australian fires. Coupled with Ianab's post I suppose it's not surprising we have the fires we do. No one cares much about wildlife or tress being killed, it's only when their houses burn down that they will shout for something to be done.

One answer of course is not to live in an area that has a history of forest or wildfires, it's the living on the slopes of Mount Etna syndrome isn't it, yet people do. If the Yellowstone Caldera goes up one day it is suggested that half of North America will be devastated, same goes for living on the St Andreas Fault, that one is already long overdue. And of course Hurricane Alley that gets battered each year. Even the New England States get horrific winters with 6ft+ snowdrifts, and of course the Western Seaboard is on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

It might be interesting to speculate where is the safest place in the USA to live away from historical natural disasters!

Chris, Most folks will tell you they live where it is safe. Where I live, Yes we get big lake effect snow storms that in just one day can dump well over 3 feet of snow. But we have the snowplows and other equipment to move it. Its a rare day here when you cant get to work or they close schools. In the summer we do have to be leary of wicked thunder storms coming of the great lakes also.
I lived in Florida, and South Carolina and went through hurricanes at both. I never felt unsafe there either. But people should realize when they tell you to evacuate you should do as told. To many idots get killed thinking its fun riding a storm out.

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Old James

I recall when I was working in LA quickly getting used to the little shakers. The "philosophy" was, if it shakes it won't break, if don't shake it will break". One one morning I woke up shaking in terror as there hadn't been any shakers for some time - then remembered I was back in the UK....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Never mind San Andreas. Worry about New Madrid.

"In a report filed in November 2008, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States," further predicting "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake or greater would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures affecting water distribution, transportation systems, and other vital infrastructure.[22] The earthquake is expected to also result in many thousands of fatalities, with more than 4,000 of the fatalities expected in Memphis alone."

A quake there in 1812 caused church bells to ring in Boston, over 1,000 miles away.

And the building codes around here are NOT up to the same earthquake standards as in California.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

And you could probally count on the bridges across the Missisippi river would be gone also. Further adding to the woes.

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Old James

And for a bit that New Madrid quake made ol man river(the Mississippi river) flow backwards for a little bit of time...

Here most newer structures can to one degree or another can or should be able to handle that, but there are older ones in CA that couldn't. CA still is afraid of the big one, whatever that is and I've gone through a few in the last 43 years.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's