Friday, August 28, 2-4pm EDT (12-2PM MDT)
NOAA colleagues from ESRL/CSD and AC4 will be hosting a virtual Town Hall, meant as an update to the FIREX white paper released last fall and AGU Town Hall. It will be an opportunity to ask any questions you might have, but we request that they are of general interest. Ideally, please submit your questions ahead of time to Monika Kopacz (monika.kopacz@noaa.gov).
Summary: Over 70 wildfires are currently burning throughout the American west, putting lives, homes, and livelihoods at risk. The smoke created by these fires blankets large swaths of the United States and exacerbates chronic heart and lung diseases while also degrading visibility and altering snowmelt, precipitation patterns, and soil properties. In the short-term, as drought conditions persist in the west, the threat of wildfires remains strong. In the long-term, under global climate change conditions, the area of the United States consumed by wildfires is expected to increase. In some parts of the west, the average annual area burned will likely increase by a factor of four per degree of warming [ESRL FIREX whitepaper]. With such clear risks, it is crucial to understand how these fires and their consequences can be aggressively predicted and managed.
To register for the webinar, please visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.
