WA Hotter, Drier Than At Any Point This Early In Summer; Hottest Seattle June Ever
The Sleepy Hollow fire raced down the crisp Sage Hills, straight toward the Broadview neighborhood in the apple capital of the world. Flames shot high into the night, torching 29 homes and causing hundreds of people to flee. Then the fire did something no one here had seen before.
Embers flew more than a mile Sunday night, into the hardworking heart of this small city. They ignited four industrial buildings, most involved in fruit packing, at the start of the busy summer agriculture season. The flames sent a terrifying message: Normally soggy Washington — nicknamed the Evergreen State for good reason and home to the wettest town in the Lower 48 — has never been hotter or drier at this point in the year, officials say, and the fire season has never begun so early or so fiercely.
"It's more reminiscent of Southern California and the brush fires fed by the Santa Ana winds," said Peter Goldmark, head of the state Department of Natural Resources. "Now it's up here in the state of Washington, where this kind of behavior is unseen. It's heralding a radical change in the kinds of fires we're going to see." The Pacific Northwest has long been a magnet for California transplants, but none have been more fearsome than the most recent arrival: the Golden State-style wildfire.
The timing couldn't be worse. The snow pack is gone. Heat records are being broken statewide. More than three-quarters of Washington's rivers and streams are running at below-normal levels, nearly half of them at record lows. Trees and grasses — wildfire's favorite fuel — are as dry throughout the state as they normally would be in August.
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-washington-wildfires-20150704-story.html#page=1
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