4
N the Red
October 2020 Wildfires create orange skies above an apartment complex in San Carlos, California. Photo provided by Ceverly Strand.
West Coast wildfires cause nationwide plight Wildfire effects spread from San Francisco to Fishers Katie Barnett barnekat000@hsestudents.org
O
ver five million acres of California, Oregon, and Washington have been scorched by massive wildfires since the onset of the unprecedented 2020 fire season. California has borne the brunt of this devastation with nearly four million acres of its land burned. Residents have lived under otherworldly orange skies and thick clouds of smoke for weeks. The effects of the fire spread beyond the West Coast. According to maps by AirNow.gov, an air quality database created by the EPA, the smoke plume from the fires has stretched across the United States, even reaching across the Atlantic Ocean. Air quality has plunged in many regions, including some areas of Indiana. Nationwide Implications San Carlos, California resident Ceverly Strand, aunt of junior Zooey Russel, has firsthand experience with the fires. “I’m right outside of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and for about a week the air quality was really bad,” Strand said. “You couldn’t go outside. It was Key: very, very smoky.” The Santa Cruz Mountains, which lie just south Red= Heavy Smoke; Hazardous of San Carlos, were engulfed in a large fire earlier Orange= Moderate Smoke; Some this year. According to Strand, life was strange Yellow= Light Smoke; Little Risk during this period. “The biggest impact I felt was on the one weird day when there was an orange sky,” Strand said. AirNow.gov “It was definitely like that all day. It was like an Graphic by Katie Barnett apocalypse, and I wondered ‘What is going on in this world?’” Strand, who is a former Indiana resident, said that life in California is much different than it is in Indiana. Senior Morgan Joiner can attest to this. She traveled to California for college visits in late
United States Smoke Plumes Risk
