The U.S. Census Bureau has released a brief highlighting the latest available statistics on commuting behavior in the United States and Puerto Rico from the 2022 American Community Survey, or ACS.
The brief, “Commuting in the United States: 2022,” explores recent commuting trends using estimates from the 2022 ACS, one-year dataset, with comparisons to 2019 and 2021.
The analysis shows changes in the way people travel to work since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic along with several key commuting characteristics, including means of transportation to work, travel time to work, and time of departure from home to go to work.
Highlights include the following.
• Almost 140 million people in the United States routinely commuted to work in 2022, and more than 20 million worked from home. • Among U.S. workers, 15.2% worked from home in 2022, down from almost 17.9% in 2021 but still far higher than the 5.7% that worked from home before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Among workers in Puerto Rico, 5.9% worked from home in 2022, down from 7.4% in 2021 but more than twice the 2019 share of 2.4%. • The share of U.S. workers driving alone to work was 68.7% in 2022, about 7 percentage points less than the 75.9% in 2019. In Puerto Rico, 82.7% of workers drove alone to their place of work in 2022, compared to 84.3% in 2019, a decline of less than 2 percentage points. • Public transportation commuting in the United States remained well below the 2019 share of 5.0% of workers at 3.1% in 2022. This represented an increase from the 2.5% of workers commuting by public transportation in 2021. In Puerto Rico, less than 1% of workers commuted by public transportation in 2021 and 2022, compared to 1.2% in 2019. • In each of seven U.S. metropolitan areas with the most public transportation commuters, more workers commuted by public transportation in 2022 compared to 2021. However, public transportation commuting did not rebound to 2019 levels in any of these seven metro areas. In the New York metro, there were roughly 700,000 fewer transit commuters in 2022 than in 2019. • Average one-way commuting time among those who traveled to a workplace increased by almost 1 minute from 25.6 minutes in 2021 to 26.4 minutes in 2022, still well short of its historic high of 27.6 minutes in 2019. • With more than 20 million people working from home in 2022, about 9 million fewer commuters departed their homes for the workplace during the core commuting hours of 6 a.m. to 8:59 a.m. in 2022 than in 2019.
The American Community Survey provides a wide range of statistics about the nation’s people and housing, such as language spoken at home, education, commuting, employment, mortgage status and rent, income, poverty, and health insurance coverage. It is the only source of local estimates for most of the 40-plus topics it covers.
On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom welcomed Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden as they continue their four-day state visit to California.
During the visit, California and Sweden signed a letter of cooperation, or LOC, renewing a climate partnership between the two economies established in 2017.
California and Sweden are both taking aggressive climate action to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
The LOC outlines five years of cooperation between California and Sweden on zero-emissions transportation and infrastructure, local climate action, clean energy and climate-smart agriculture.
Governor Newsom and Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell signed the historic LOC at the Stanford Mansion in Sacramento.
“California and Sweden have led the world in taking ambitious climate action, and now we’re partnering to do even more,” said Newsom. “From advancing zero-emissions technology to collaborating on our clean energy transition, our work together will benefit communities from Stockton to Stockholm.”
“As world-leaders in innovation, Sweden and California share a strong belief that innovation and international collaboration is the key to solve the challenges of the future. Today we take a clear step towards deepening our partnership,” Minister Forssell said.
California’s world-leading climate policies have led the state to exceed its 2020 climate target six years ahead of schedule, and created partnerships across the U.S. and around the world.
Last year, Gov. Newsom led a California delegation to China, where California signed five MOUs — with China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, and the municipalities of Beijing, and Shanghai.
The trip also resulted in a first-of-its-kind declaration by China and California to cooperate on subnational climate action, including aggressively cutting greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning away from fossil fuels, and developing clean energy technology.
Also in 2023, California signed a MOU with the Chinese province of Hainan, as well as with Australia.
In 2022 alone, California signed memorandums of cooperation with Canada, New Zealand and Japan, as well as memorandums of understanding with China and the Netherlands, to tackle the climate crisis.
The governor also joined with Washington, Oregon and British Columbia to recommit the region to climate action.
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Why does a leap year have 366 days? Does the Earth move slower every four years? – Aarush, age 8, Milpitas, California
You may be used to hearing that it takes the Earth 365 days to make a full lap, but that journey actually lasts about 365 and a quarter days. Leap years help to keep the 12-month calendar matched up with Earth’s movement around the Sun.
After four years, those leftover hours add up to a whole day. In a leap year, we add this extra day to the month of February, making it 29 days long instead of the usual 28.
The idea of an annual catch-up dates back to ancient Rome, where people had a calendar with 355 days instead of 365 because it was based on cycles and phases of the Moon. They noticed that their calendar was getting out of sync with the seasons, so they began adding an extra month, which they called Mercedonius, every two years to catch up with the missing days.
In the year 45 B.C.E., Roman emperor Julius Caesar introduced a solar calendar, based on one developed in Egypt. Every four years, February received an extra day to keep the calendar in line with the Earth’s journey around the Sun. In honor of Caesar, this system is still known as the Julian calendar.
But that wasn’t the last tweak. As time went on, people realized that the Earth’s journey wasn’t exactly 365.25 days – it actually took 365.24219 days, which is about 11 minutes less. So adding a whole day every four years was actually a little more correction than was needed.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII signed an order that made a small adjustment. There would still be a leap year every four years, except in “century” years – years divisible by 100, like 1700 or 2100 – unless they were also divisible by 400. It might sound a bit like a puzzle, but this adjustment made the calendar even more accurate – and from that point on, it was known as the Gregorian calendar.
What if we didn’t have leap years?
If the calendar didn’t make that small correction every four years, it would gradually fall out of alignment with the seasons. Over centuries, this could lead to the solstices and equinoxes occurring at different times than expected. Winter weather might develop in what the calendar showed as summer, and farmers could become confused about when to plant their seeds.
Other calendars around the world have their own ways of keeping time. The Jewish calendar, which is regulated by both the Moon and the Sun, is like a big puzzle with a 19-year cycle. Every now and then, it adds a leap month to make sure that special celebrations happen at just the right time.
The Islamic calendar is even more unique. It follows the phases of the Moon and doesn’t add extra days. Since a lunar year is only about 355 days long, key dates on the Islamic calendar move 10 to 11 days earlier each year on the solar calendar.
For example, Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, falls in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. In 2024, it will run from March 11 to April 9; in 2025, it will occur from March 1-29; and in 2026, it will be celebrated from Feb. 18 to March 19.
Learning from the planets
Astronomy originated as a way to make sense of our daily lives, linking the events around us to celestial phenomena. The concept of leap years exemplifies how, from early ages, humans found order in conditions that seemed chaotic.
Simple, unsophisticated but effective tools, born from creative ideas of ancient astronomers and visionaries, provided the first glimpses into understanding the nature that envelops us. Some ancient methods, such as astrometry and lists of astronomical objects, persist even today, revealing the timeless essence of our quest to understand nature.
People who do research in physics and astronomy, the field that I study, are inherently curious about the workings of the universe and our origins. This work is exciting, and also extremely humbling; it constantly shows that in the grand scheme, our lives occupy a mere second in the vast expanse of space and time – even in leap years when we add that extra day.
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And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) led a bipartisan letter to California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Bushing Reynolds urging CPUC to reject AT&T’s petition to end access to landline services.
“AT&T’s application to cease landline service in our communities threatens public safety in an area plagued by earthquakes, severe storms, floods, and fires and that has a geography that often disrupts cellular service for days, if not weeks, at a time,” Thompson and 14 other members of Congress wrote. “During these times, residents are only able to contact emergency services and obtain emergency updates via their landlines. In fact, many of these areas do not have reliable cellular service on a good weather day, at best. If AT&T’s petition is granted, we think an exception for residents who live in areas with unreliable cellular service, where they are prone to fires, earthquakes, flooding, and landslides is warranted.
“As the CPUC considers AT&T’s proposal to discontinue lifesaving services, we think a clear-eyed analysis of the limitations of the cellular service in good conditions, and in the hilly and mountainous areas where disasters can cause prolonged power outages is necessary. We encourage you to fully and fairly consider the concerns from constituents in our districts about the impact the loss of land lines would have on the safety of our community,” the members closed.
AT&T filed a document with the CPUC in December seeking relief from its “carrier of last resort” obligations across the state.
In Lake County, one of the five counties Thompson represents, AT&T wants to end its carrier of last resort obligations to 15 different communities: Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake Riviera, the city of Clearlake and surrounding areas, Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, the city of Lakeport city and surrounding areas, Lower Lake, Lucerne, Middletown, Nice, north Lakeport, Soda Bay, Spring Valley and Upper Lake.
Thompson was joined by 14 members of the California delegation in signing the letter.
The members of Congress signing the letter include Rep. Lou Correa, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, Rep. Anna Eshoo, Rep. John Garamendi, Rep. Jared Huffman, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Mike Levin, Rep. Kevin Mullin, Rep. Jimmy Panetta, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Mark Takano.
Information on the process and how to comment can be found here.
On behalf of the constituents of the California Delegation, we raise serious concerns with AT&T’s applications to be relieved of its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations and to remove its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designation in areas of California. AT&T’s application to cease landline service in our communities threatens public safety in an area plagued by earthquakes, severe storms, floods, and fires and that has a geography that often disrupts cellular service for days, if not weeks, at a time. During these times, residents are only able to contact emergency services and obtain emergency updates via their landlines. In fact, many of these areas do not have reliable cellular service on a good weather day, at best. If AT&T’s petition is granted, we think an exception for residents who live in areas with unreliable cellular service, where they are prone to fires, earthquakes, flooding, and landslides is warranted.
Congress has repeatedly passed legislation seeking to address the worsening severity of natural disasters and their impact on our constituents. For example, in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Congress provided $500 million for hazardous fuels mitigation; $500 million for prescribed fires; $500 million for communities to implement a community wildfire defense plan; $5 billion for utilities to underground power lines, install fire-resistant technologies, and expand the use of microgrids; and $3.5 billion for weatherization assistance to help homeowners make energy-efficient improvements that help fireproof their homes. Ensuring residents are able to communicate and reach emergency services during these natural disasters addresses the Congressional concern with mitigating the loss of life and property during these natural disasters that often require federal funds for remediation for the loss of property. There is no remediation possible for the loss of life.
CPUC’s stated mission is to ensure Californians have safe, reliable utility services. We do not believe that removing access to landlines is compatible with this mission. When catastrophic earthquakes, destructive fires, cataclysmic landslides, or ravaging floods happen residents are left without the electricity or working cellular towers necessary for cellular phone usage for days and weeks at a time. These disasters are not figurative or future possibilities. They happen regularly in this area of the country.
For example, this year already hundreds of thousands of Californians who were without power due to the Pineapple Express weather system storms, floods, and landslides. The earthquake of 2022 left Californians without power for such an extended period of time, people were unable to charge their cellular phones. The only way to call for emergency services and stay in touch with the outside world was via neighbors that had landlines. What will happen if these landlines are removed? How will people call for emergency service in a disaster or in areas with poor cellular reception?
As of the morning of February 7, 2024, you had over 3,000 comments asking you to deny the petition. We think these comments are worth consideration when determining whether to deny AT&T’s petition or to create an exception for residents who live in areas with unreliable cellular service, where they are prone to fires, earthquakes, flooding, and landslides.
As the CPUC considers AT&T's proposal to discontinue lifesaving services, we think a clear-eyed analysis of the limitations of the cellular service in good conditions, and in the hilly and mountainous areas where disasters can cause prolonged power outages is necessary. We encourage you to fully and fairly consider the concerns from constituents in our districts about the impact the loss of land lines would have on the safety of our community.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In celebration of National Children's Dental Health Month, the Lake County Office of Education announced its ongoing commitment to promoting good oral health habits through the Children's Oral Health Project.
February is National Children's Dental Health Month.
This year’s theme is "Healthy Habits for Healthy Smiles." This is a month-long observance that unites dental professionals, healthcare providers, oral health champions, and advocates in a collective effort to underscore the importance of good oral health and prevention for children and adults alike.
The Oral Health Project initiative is part of the Healthy Start program, which has been dedicated to the well-being of Lake County students for 18 years.
This initiative encompasses dental screenings, oral health education for students and their parents, referrals for dental treatment, as well as support in transportation and obtaining dental insurance.
During the 2022-2023 school year, the Healthy Start program reached 22 Lake County schools, conducting 2,764 dental screenings for Preschool-12th grade students. This underscores the program's dedication to proactively addressing the oral health needs of the community's youth.
“The future health and education of our families depend significantly on instilling and reinforcing positive dental habits early in life,” said Brock Falkenberg, Lake County Superintendent of Schools.
The LCOE Healthy Start program collaborates with esteemed partners, including Lakeview Health Clinic, Adventist Clearlake, Lake County Health Services, and Glowing Smiles Dental Hygiene practice, to implement the Children's Oral Health Project.
“Oral health is the gateway to overall health. A healthy smile is key to a happy and healthy life. I love what Healthy Start is doing to boost the well-being and confidence of our county's young people,” Lake County Board of Education President Melissa Kinsel said.
For more information about the Children's Oral Health Project and the LCOE Healthy Start program, visit www.lakecoe.org/HealthyStart.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced actions the state is taking as another potentially dangerous winter storm is set to impact much of California through Wednesday.
The storm is anticipated to be brief but intense.
Lake County is under a flood watch and high wind warning through Tuesday morning.
Gov. Newsom has activated the State Operations Center in Mather to help coordinate state, local and federal response to the storm.
"Already this year, severe storms have proven to be deadly up and down California,” Newsom said. “Our state is taking this next storm seriously, and we ask all Californians to take steps now to prepare."
The governor also directed the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, to strategically preposition swift water rescue crews and other rescue personnel and equipment in multiple counties to be able to respond if needed.
According to the National Weather Service, this storm could bring significant rainfall and snow throughout much of the state, as well as potential for thunderstorms, debris flows and mudslides.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The State Water Resources Control Board will hold a virtual workshop this week to answer questions about its recently issued Clear Lake Information Order.
The workshop, to be held on Zoom, will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22.
Earlier this month, an estimated 1,300 property owners began receiving a certified letter from the State Water Resources Control Board regarding the information order, implemented in response to the Board of Supervisors’ February 2023 emergency declaration for the Clear Lake hitch.
During the Thursday workshop, State Water Resources Control Board staff will discuss how to comply with the Clear Lake Information Order.
Staff will give brief presentations on several items, including reviewing the information order requirements and reporting timelines, the certification process, reporting pathway options, a review of approved groundwater extraction measurement methods and helpful resources. There also will be time for questions from participants.
Visit the information order and reporting requirements for the Clear Lake Watershed website for more information about how to report, reporting pathways, and timelines.
Questions can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County and much of California will face more rain through the course of this week thanks to the latest in a continuing series of storms.
“While this storm is not expected to be as fierce as the ones earlier in the month, the latest in the train of storms will be dangerous, posing several risks to people and property — including a renewed flood risk and gusty winds for some along the West Coast, and for central and northern California, it can bring severe thunderstorms and even an isolated tornado across parts of Northern and Central California on Monday and even across parts of Southern California on Tuesday. The storm has the potential to once again slow travel and activities, including business activities, in the state,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
Accuweather said that, comparing the impacts expected over the upcoming days to the storms that barreled into California from Feb. 3 to 5, forecasters are not expecting the risks to be as widespread due to one main factor: this storm will be losing energy as it approaches rather than strengthening.
Rainfall totals in inches for the 72-hour period ending at 2 a.m. Tuesday:
— Hidden Valley Lake: 4.61 — Indian Valley Reservoir: 2.77. — Kelseyville: 5.20. — Lake Pillsbury: 3.96. — Lower Lake: 4.43. — Lyons Valley: 3.31. — Whispering Pines: 5.80.
The National Weather Service’s forecast for the week shows chances of rain through Monday.
Along with the rain, more high winds are in the forecast, causing concerns for more falling trees and power lines.
Due to concerns statewide about the strength of these latest storms, Gov. Newsom preemptively activated the State Operations Center in Mather to help coordinate state, local and federal response.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council will get updates on several projects when it meets this week.
The council will meet in a closed session at 5 p.m. before the regular meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
On the agenda is a traffic safety update from City Manager Kevin Ingram and an update on the 2023 communications team activity from Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia.a
Public Works Director Ron Ladd will share with the council the latest on the Hartley Culvert and Forbes Creek Headwall Project, which resulted from storm damage in 2019.
On the consent agenda — items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the regular meeting on Feb. 6 and the special meeting on Feb. 13; approval of application 2024-008, with staff recommendations, for reserved parking on Forbes Street for the March 5 election; adoption of an ordinance of the City Council of the city of Lakeport amending Section 2.10.110 of Chapter 2.10 of Title 2 of the Lakeport Municipal Code to authorize city manager to sign written contracts and conveyances and have design approval authority.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research
Scientists have successfully applied a pair of advanced computer models to simulate last year’s wildfire that devastated the Hawaiian town of Lahaina.
The development could lay the groundwork for more detailed predictions of wildfires that advance into towns and cities, eventually helping with firefighting efforts and safer evacuations as well as the design of wildfire-resistant communities.
The study, led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NSF NCAR, brought together a cross-disciplinary team of meteorologists with structural and environmental engineers.
Their combined expertise enabled them to simulate how intense winds whipped up a brushfire and drove the flames in various directions through neighborhoods and commercial districts, igniting and destroying a variety of structures amid chaotic evacuations.
Although scientists for years have worked to improve predictions of fires that burn through forests and grasslands in various terrains, they have only recently turned to the even more difficult challenge of predicting how a fire will behave once it encounters populated areas. Such events have become more frequent in the past decade, often with tragic consequences.
“It’s such a complex situation when fires move from outlying areas into a town, but this study shows that we’ll have the capability in the not-too-distant future to predict fire spread within minutes of knowing the location and timing of fire ignition,” said NSF NCAR scientist Timothy Juliano, the lead author of the new study. “Our approach can serve as a basis going forward to understanding how extreme weather conditions can affect fire behavior in various types of built environments and ultimately better protect vulnerable communities.”
Juliano himself witnessed the need for improved prediction when he had to evacuate his house in Louisville, Colorado, during the 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed more than 1,000 structures.
The research team included experts from the University of Buffalo, the University of Nevada Reno, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. The study, funded by NSF, was published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, a journal of the European Geosciences Union.
Understanding fire behavior
Fast-moving wildfires in recent years have devastated communities in such far-flung locations as Superior and Louisville, Colorado; Talent and Phoenix, Oregon; Paradise, California; and Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The Lahaina Fire of Aug. 8 to 9, 2023, was especially tragic, killing 100 people and destroying more than 2,200 structures. It was the deadliest U.S. fire in more than a century.
In each of these cases, the flames swept from vegetated areas into subdivisions and strip malls during extreme wind events, overwhelming firefighting efforts and inflicting major damage within 12 hours of ignition.
Scientists are working to better understand such events, which require painstaking analysis of local atmospheric conditions as well as a determination of how a fire can blaze through woodlands or grasslands and then, once in town, ignite one structure after another.
To gain a detailed picture of the Lahaina Fire, the research team paired two computer models with different capabilities.
One, the NSF NCAR–based Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, was used to simulate the downslope windstorm that erupted on the day of the fire, generating gusts up to 80 miles per hour. The high-resolution model could show the turbulent wind flows around Lahaina and a “hydraulic jump” — an event in which winds rushing downhill abruptly rise when they collide with winds flowing in the other direction, setting off chaotic and powerful motions of air.
The wind fields from the WRF simulation were fed into the second model, Streamlined Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Tracing (SWUIFT). This model can simulate the spread of flames in a developed area, capturing the ways that extreme heat and shooting embers can set structures ablaze.
The simulations captured strong winds on the morning of August 8 flowing down the mountainous slopes of Pu'u Kukui east of Lahaina. These winds encountered a reverse flow, creating a hydraulic jump that would gradually move offshore.
By mid-afternoon, the strongest winds were buffeting areas just east of downtown Lahaina, where the fire is believed to have started in dry grass. In the early evening, the hydraulic jump began to move back to the east toward Lahaina and then partially up the slope of Pu'u Kukui. This enveloped the city in especially treacherous wind fields, known as turbulent rotors, with mean winds reversing and flowing from the west to east in contrast with the earlier strong flow of east to west during the ignition.
The changes in wind direction proved fateful. The simulation showed that the initial fire spread from about 3:30-4:30 p.m., moving from vegetation to structures in a narrow path in the same direction as the wind and reaching historic areas by the oceanfront. The fire front then slowly widened and, beginning around 7:30 p.m., accelerated as the change in winds drove the flames in all directions, reaching structures in the southern portion of Lahaina while also continuing to expand northward.
“The subsequent, and rather abrupt, shift in the winds to onshore (westerly) and extreme variability was particularly insidious in that it allowed continued fire spread in all directions, and thus, those fleeing the initial east-to-west run did not have a safe haven apart from the ocean,” the paper states. “In other words, it was not a simple situation of moving out of the path of the fire.”
Tracking with witness reports, videos
The results from the simulation generally tracked well with witness reports and recorded videos for the fire spread.
The authors noted that, in addition to the unusually strong and turbulent wind fields, multiple factors affected the death toll. They said further research is needed into the role of building construction types, evacuation planning and orders, blocked egress, and population demographics (many of the fire’s victims were elderly).
Still, even in such a complex situation, Juliano and his co-authors concluded that advanced computer modeling can make a difference when a community is threatened by a fast-moving fire. Their research shows it should be possible to develop new technologies that can run computer simulations in faster than real time to help with firefighting and evacuations. Such technologies can also help guide planning to reduce fire risk long before a conflagration ignites.
“I was surprised by how well the simulation came out,” Juliano said. “This study demonstrates the potential to develop an active-fire decision support system that can revolutionize the response to fires in the built environment and empower a future in which society coexists with wildfires.”
About the paper
Title: “Brief communication: The Lahaina Fire disaster – how models can be used to understand and predict wildfires” Authors: Timothy W. Juliano, Fernando Szasdi-Bardales, Neil P. Lareau, Kasra Shamsaei, Branko Kosović, Negar Elhami-Khorasani, Eric P. James, and Hamed Ebrahimian Journal: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — This month’s storms have pushed Clear Lake into the “full” range.
The lake is considered full at 7.56 feet Rumsey, the special measure for Clear Lake.
It topped that measure just after 10 p.m. Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey’s gauge on Clear Lake at Lakeport.
The USGS measurements show the lake rose to 7.90 feet Rumsey shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday.
The lake reaches the “action” stage at 8 feet Rumsey and flood stage at 9 feet Rumsey, the USGS reported.
Last year, it took the lake until March 14 to reach the full level, and from there it topped out at 8.38 feet Rumsey on March 21 before receding.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Camille Stevens-Rumann, Colorado State University and Jude Bayham, Colorado State University
A wet winter and spring followed by a hot, dry summer can be a dangerous combination in the Western U.S. The rain fuels bountiful vegetation growth, and when summer heat dries out that vegetation, it can leave grasses and shrubs ready to burn.
In years like this, controlled burns and prescribed fire treatments are crucial to help protect communities against wildfires. Well-staffed fire crews ready to respond to blazes are essential, too.
These are some of the reasons why an announcement from U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore on Feb. 8, 2024, is raising concerns. Moore told agency employees to expect budget cuts from Congress in 2024. His letter was thin on details. However, taken at face value, budget cuts could be interpreted as a reduction in the firefighting workforce, compounding recruitment and retention challenges that the Forest Service is already facing.
So what does this mean for the coming fire season? We study wildfire policy and fire ecology, and one of us, Camille Stevens-Rumann, has worked as a wildland firefighter. Here are a few important things to know.
The fire funding fix
While Moore’s letter raises concerns, the financial reality for fighting fires this year is likely less dire than it might otherwise be for one key reason.
The 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act included what is known as the “fire funding fix.” It introduced a new budget structure, creating a separate disaster fund accessible during costly wildfire seasons. The fire funding fix allows federal firefighting agencies to access up to US$2.25 billion in additional disaster funding a year starting in 2020 and increasing to $2.95 billion in 2027.
Prior to the fire funding fix, fighting fires – suppression expenditures – consumed nearly 50% of the U.S. Forest Service budget. As bad fire years worsened, that left less funding for the agency’s other services, including conducting fuel treatments, such as prescribed burns, to reduce the risk of wildfires spreading.
The fix protects agency budgets, ensuring that a high-cost fire season will not completely consume the budget, and that allows more funding for preventive efforts and all the other programs of the Forest Service.
In 2022, it released a Wildfire Crisis Strategy and Implementation Plan that included ramping up fuel treatments to reduce the potential for large uncontrollable fires, as the West had seen in previous years. It called for treating up to an additional 50 million acres over 10 years.
That work won’t be completed before the 2024 fire season, but fuel treatments will be underway. They include prescribed burning to remove dry grasses, twigs, logs and other fuels in a controlled way and the use of heavy equipment to thin dense forest areas and create fire breaks by removing trees and vegetation.
Prescribed burning must be done when conditions are safe to limit the potential for the fire to get out of control, usually in the spring and early summer. However, climate change is expected to shorten the prescribed burning window in the western U.S.
Staffing is still a concern
Doing this work requires staff, and the Forest Service’s challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified firefighters may hinder its ability to accomplish all of its objectives.
In 2023, over 18,000 people were employed as federal wildland firefighters. While the Forest Service and Department of the Interior have not specified precise staffing targets, Moore has mentioned that “some crews have roughly half the staff they need.”
A recent Government Accountability Office report found that low wages and poor work-life balance, among other challenges, were barriers commonly cited by federal firefighting employees. The government boosted firefighters’ pay in 2021, but that increase is set to expire unless Congress votes to make it permanent. So far, firefighters have kept the same level of pay each time Congress pushed back acting on the 2024 budget, but it’s a precarious position.
The agency has started many initiatives to recruit and retain permanent employees, but it is too early to assess the results. A recent study involving one of us, Jude Bayham, found that highly qualified firefighters were more likely to remain with the agency after active seasons, during which they earn more money.
Everyone has a role in fire protection
Even with optimal funding and staffing, the firefighting agencies cannot protect every area from wildfire. Some of the defensive work will have to be done by residents in high-risk areas.
These include keeping flammable vegetation away from buildings and reducing other fire hazards such as wood shingles, flammable debris in yards and pine needles in gutters. People should also pay attention to burn bans and avoid risky activities, such as leaving campfires unattended, setting off fireworks and using equipment that can spark fires on hot, dry, windy days.
Recent disastrous wildfire seasons have shown how important it is to manage the fire risk. Consistent funding is crucial, and homeowners can help by taking defensive action to reduce wildfire risk on their property.