Florida Wildfires Fueled By Dry Forests Killed By Hurricane Michael
Multiple wildfires are blazing across the Florida Panhandle, burning thousands of acres, forcing evacuations, and incinerating homes. The largest, the Bertha Swamp Road Fire, has burned more than 14,000 acres. Climate change is increasing the size, frequency, and intensity of wildfires overall, and the Bertha Swamp Road fire is voraciously consuming dry vegetation as it burns through forests devastated by Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm — fueled by exceptionally warm water before making landfall — that hammered the Panhandle in 2018 with the strongest winds on record.
(CNN, USA Today, AP, New York Times $, Weather.com, NBC; Climate Signals background: Wildfires, Hurricane Michael)
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