Extreme Weather and Inflation Alert! Associated Press: Dixie fire merges with Fly fire in California as blazes scorch West. More than 85 large wildfires burning around the country, most of them in Western states.
California’s largest wildfire merged with a smaller blaze and destroyed homes in rugged and remote areas, as numerous other fires burned across the U.S. West.
The Dixie fire had already leveled over a dozen houses and other structures in Northern California when it combined with the Fly fire and tore through the tiny community of Indian Falls after dark Saturday.
An updated damage estimate was not available Sunday, though fire officials said the blaze had charred more than 301 square miles (779 square kilometers) of timber and brush in Plumas and Butte counties. It was 21% contained.
The fire prompted evacuation orders in several small mountain communities and along the west shore of Lake Almanor, a popular resort area. More than 10,000 homes were under threat, officials said.
Firefighters also reported progress against the nation’s largest wildfire, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, containing 53% of the blaze that had scorched 640 square miles (1,657 square kilometers) of land.
The lightning-caused fire has burned 67 homes, mainly cabins, and at least 2,000 houses were under evacuation orders.
Firefighters have been dealing with perilous fire behavior, with flames consuming huge areas of vegetation each day. Such conditions are often from a combination of unusual random, short-term and natural weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change. Global warming has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years.
In southwest Montana, officials were focusing on structure protection for three fires amid weather forecasts of rising temperatures, low humidity and westerly winds this week, factors that could produce explosive growth.
Crews were trying to protect about 200 homes and cabins and prevent the 44-square-mile (144-square-kilometer) Trail Creek blaze from reaching the Big Hole National Battlefield in Beaverhead County, fire spokesman Jason Nedlo said. The battlefield site, operated by the National Park Service, has been closed because of the fire threat.
Five federal firefighters were in stable condition Sunday after being burned when swirling winds blew a lightning-caused wildfire back on them in eastern Montana on Thursday. The five were building a defensive line at the Devil’s Creek Fire in Garfield County when the weather shifted suddenly.
Elsewhere in California, the 105-square-mile (272-square-kilometer) Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe continued to burn through timber and chaparral and threatened communities on both sides of the California-Nevada state line. The fire, sparked by lightning July 4 in Alpine County, California, has destroyed at least 23 buildings, including more than a dozen in Nevada. It was 45% contained.
In north-central Washington, firefighters battled two blazes in Okanogan County that threatened hundreds of homes and again caused hazardous air quality conditions Saturday. And in northern Idaho, east of Spokane, Washington, a small fire near the Silverwood Theme Park prompted evacuations Friday evening at the park and in the surrounding area. The theme park was back open Saturday with the fire half contained.
More than 85 large wildfires were burning around the country, most of them in Western states. They had burned over 1.4 million acres (2,135 square miles, or more than 553,000 hectares).
Some further context, Union Pacific has posted photos to its social media accounts showing a firefighting train at work on the bridge at the famous Keddie Wye on its ex-Western Pacific Feather River Canyon route
https://twitter.com/UnionPacific/status/1419717921161588737/photo/1 These guys are badasses, I hope they all are holding GME and are staying safe to get back home to their families!
The UP route remains under threat from the Dixie Fire, which has merged with another wildfire and is approaching 200,000 acres burned — an area of over 300 square miles.
We have previously discussed the effects of excessive heat and wildfire on the transportation network.
Impacts on transportation discussed:
Roads
Higher temperatures can cause the pavement to soften, expand, and buckle. This can create rutting and potholes (especially in high-traffic areas) and can place stress on bridge joints. Heatwaves can also limit construction activities, particularly in areas with high humidity. Due to these changes, it will become more costly to build and maintain roads and highways.
Railways
High temperatures cause rail tracks to expand and buckle. More frequent and severe heat waves or wildfires require track repairs or speed restrictions to avoid derailments.
The entire transportation network is already facing spikes in costs and supply/labor shortages, and you can bet any of the severe weather we have discussed above will exacerbate and compound those issues. This will continue to raise costs and those costs will get passed down the line. More fun to look forward to over the coming months. The CPI number for June is a lie and a joke and this inflation is not transitory--as Covid-19, Suez Canal, and Mother Nature all have continued roles to play in seeing it stick around.
With inventories depleted, trouble likely on the horizon from Mother Nature, how is there any chance of prices going down? This inflation beast in the 'real economy' is insatiable and wants EVERYTHING!! (sidenote, I do think we will see deflation in asset prices when all of this goes down).
All of this pain in the transportation system happening in the backdrop of the Fed still plowing away with $120 billion in assets purchases each month:
$40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities. This will continue to depress mortgage rates and only continues to add gasoline to the inflation fire.
$80 billion in Treasury securities a month (with policy rates near 0%): represses short-term and long-term interest rates in general, and inflates asset prices and consumer prices, which further DESTROYS the purchasing power of the dollar.
TL:DR The Dollar losing purchasing power + Inflation = Permanent Loss of purchasing power. This will likely be amplified by the demand created from extreme weather events and the lack of current inventory covered in previous posts.
Buckle Up.
