The European Agency for Atmospheric Monitoring (known as Copernicus) announced, on Wednesday, that the fires sweeping the American West are tens to hundreds of times more severe than the rate recorded in the past 15 years.
Experts of the agency noted that the dense smoke is emitted from those fires has reached Europe.
Thanks to the satellite observations, Mark Barrington, a scientist in the administration, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Barrington noted that scientists are monitoring the scale of fires and smoke pollution that travels through the United States across the Atlantic Ocean toward the core of the European continent.
These data indicate that this year's "unprecedented" fires are tens to hundreds of times more intense than the average for the period between 2003 and 2019 across the United States as well as in many of the affected states.
The fires also emit a large amount of smoke.
The California and Oregon fires released into the atmosphere "a much greater amount of carbon in 2020 than in any other year since the start of carbon measurement by the administration in 2003.
Barrington explained that this amount is estimated to "21.7 megatons in California and 7.3 megatons in Oregon.
Satellite images show that the smoke has remained off the coast of the United States on the Pacific Ocean for several days due to the weather conditions, but the winds have pushed it again towards North America in recent days.
The European administration estimates that the smoke has started crossing the Atlantic Ocean again and will reach northern Europe later in the week, just as it happened last week.
Barrington said that, in fact, these fires emit pollution in the atmosphere so great that we see dense smoke eight thousand kilometers away, and this reflects the extent of their destruction, in terms of size and duration.
In total, more than 2 million hectares of vegetation have been destroyed since mid-August from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.
Scientists are unanimous that the exceptional size of forest fires is linked to climate change that exacerbates chronic droughts and causes extreme weather conditions.
However, US President Donald J. Trump visited California on Monday to meet with Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials for a private briefing on the devastating fire season.
Trump blamed the wildfires ravaging the West Coast not on climate change but on the failure by Western states to properly manage their forests, according to the New York Times.
When trees fall down after a short period of time, they become very dry really like a matchstick, the president told reporters after disembarking from Air Force One at Sacramento McClellan Airport, where the stench of smoke filled the air. He warned that dry wood can explode.
"When you have dried leaves on the ground, its just fuel for the fires," he said.
The president brushed off a question about climate change, suggesting that the query be put to Newsom instead.
Environmentalists, state officials and scientists said the scarred countryside and ashen clouds are the predictable consequence of climate change that has gone largely unchecked by Mr. Trump, who has instead rolled back environmental regulations.
Newsom offered thanks to the president for federal help and agreed with him that forest management needs to be better, but he noted that only 3 percent of land in California is under state control while 57 percent is federal forest land, meaning under the presidents management.
Newsom said climate change clearly was a factor. Somethings happening to the plumbing of the world, he said, and we come from a perspective humbly where we submit the science is in and observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this.
He went on to say that he think there's an area of at least commonality on vegetation, forest management.
Follow the latest news on Google News
