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La. governor links 'extreme heat' to state's record wildfires
Temperatures had been over 95 degrees from June 29 until Monday in Lake Charles, 40 miles southeast of the biggest blaze in Louisiana.
GREENWIRE | As hurricane season heats up, Louisiana is fighting wildfires instead of flooding.
Thousands of acres in the state’s southwest are burning after months of extreme heat created exceptionally dry conditions that parched soil and helped wildfire spread, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said at an online conference Monday.
“Nobody alive in Louisiana has ever seen drought conditions this severe,” Edwards said at a conference on extreme heat held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It has never been this hot for this long. It has never been this dry simultaneously.”
Edwards, a Democrat, said the wildfires developed “precisely because of the extreme heat” that his state is under, citing climate change and accelerating warming as a main cause of the wildfires in Louisiana. Temperatures had been over 95 degrees from June 29 until Monday in Lake Charles, a large population center 40 miles southeast of the biggest blaze in Louisiana.
More than 400 wildfires were burning in the state as of Monday afternoon, with FEMA providing financial support for Louisiana efforts to put out three of the most damaging fires.
Among them, the Tiger Island Fire in southwestern Louisiana is the largest wildfire in Louisiana history and more than doubled its size over the past weekend. Now it is burning more than 33,000 acres — an area more than twice the size of Manhattan. The fire was only 50 percent contained as of Monday, according to state officials.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be combating hundreds of wildfires within a short period of time here in Louisiana,” Edwards said. “For us that was always something that California, Texas, New Mexico and other states are going to have to deal with. But that is our reality.”
Scientists say water evaporates from soil and plants much faster in higher temperatures, making land drier even without a notable decrease in rainfall compared with cooler weather.
Edwards made the connection among climate change, heat waves and the wildfires in Louisiana during the FEMA conference that discussed the impacts of extreme heat on communities.
The news conference followed a weekend dominated by heat waves across the U.S. More than 57 million people in the South and Southwest were under the most severe category of heat warning, while another 54 million people were under heat advisory, according to the National Weather Service.
Edwards left the FEMA conference early to monitor the wildfires that have led to three separate FEMA fire declarations — the first ones in the state since 2000. In the last 25 years, Louisiana had only one other FEMA fire declaration, according to agency records.
Nearly 77 percent of Louisiana residents are experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Temperatures broke all-time records across the state, with Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reaching 105 degrees Sunday, marking the highest temperature ever observed.
Edwards said it would be “the worst mistake” to expect that the extreme heat would not return for years, adding that states and local governments need to start investing in heat mitigation.
“I suspect next time isn't going to be 50 years from now — it may be next summer,” Edwards said. “I would love to be wrong, but I think it would be foolish to assume that would be the case.”
