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Extreme Weather, Extreme Fires Mark California's Summer 2018

National Weather Service / Cal Fire
A photo of damage caused by a "fire-whirl" as a result of the Carr Fire near Redding, July 26, 2018. It toppeled high voltage power lines ans stripped vegitation from trees, with winds up to 143 miles per hour.

Last month the Carr Fire near Redding exploded overnight in what some people have called a "fire-nado" - with extreme rotating winds that toppled high tension power lines and wrapped metal posts around trees. It was the most extreme case of extreme fire behavior people have seen in California in recent times. But with a record-setting stretch of triple digit temperatures, skies filled with smoke, and fires creating their own weather, 2018 has proven to be anything but normal. We recently spoke with Sean Boyd, longtime broadcast meteorologist and current geography instructor at Fresno City College and lecturer in geography at Fresno State about the science behind extreme weather, fires and climate change. 

Joe Moore is the President and General Manager of KVPR / Valley Public Radio. He has led the station through major programming changes, the launch of KVPR Classical and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership the station was named California Non-Profit of the Year by Senator Melissa Hurtado (2019), and won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting (2022).