Lightning is so rare on the North Coast that
when it struck here, the major Eureka daily's story about it that led the front page of its Sunday edition misspelled the word in the headline. And again in the first paragraph. Note to editors: though "lightening" of the sky is a physical phenomenon which happens every day (usually called "dawn") it doesn't normally cause fires. But lightning does and did, not only in Arcata but across Northern California over the weekend, and it was no laughing matter. Some 8,000 lightning strikes resulted in some 800 fires, adding to the wildfires already raging over the past week or so. That's more lightning-caused fires in a day than usually happen in a year.
The lightning was especially unusual because it was "dry lightning," without rain, a rare phenomenon at any time but especially this early in the summer. But since California is in the grip of a drought, dry woods fueled fires, scorching tens of thousands of acres. Another case of separate phenomena, at least partly caused or made worse by global heating, that operated to destroy, suddenly and extensively. Speaking of which, flooding continued in the Midwest, despite predictions, and another levee broke, while several governors of affected states "pleaded with the White House on Tuesday for more help to counter billions of dollars in damages from floods that drowned parts of the U.S. farm heartland and drove thousands from their homes."
Updates: Fires continued to spread and join up Tuesday(while some are under control) over a large area of California and in other western states. Smoke is causing serious breathing problems in a number of areas, including in parts of Oregon. Also Tuesday, "A new round of storms dumped a half foot or more of rain across parts of the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, dealing fresh trouble to a region already struggling with billions of dollars in flood damage." Between new rain and the sheer volume of water, flood waters in some places which have crested are not receding.
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