It’s a rapidly changing situation.
Battle of Los Angeles
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the agency’s research and development center that’s been at the cutting edge of space exploration for decades, is under an evacuation order due to the devastating wildfires currently ravishing the city.
Ironically, the center has been at the forefront of studying the science of wildfires, from air quality measurements to the analysis of carbon monoxide emissions caused by blazes.
Now the facility, which is located in Pasadena roughly half an hour’s drive from downtown LA, had to shut its doors due to an encroaching wildfire dubbed Eaton.
The entire region has been battling with a number of raging and wind-fueled wildfires, threatening the homes of thousands of Californians — an increasingly common phenomenon as climate change rears its ugly head.
“My heart goes out to those affected by the Palisades Fire in Southern California,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson wrote in a statement on X-formerly-Twitter. “Many in our NASA family, including our teams at Armstrong and JPL, are affected. Grace and I are praying for their safety and the safety of the first responders battling the blaze.”
Fanning the Flames
The Sunshine State has been suffering from a severe lack of rain and an extremely warm summer, a perfect storm for the outbreak of wildfires. Strong winds reaching 70 mph are making the situation extremely serious, allowing fires to spread at an alarming rate, as a reporter for the local news station KTLA found out firsthand.
As CNN reports, even vice president Kamala Harris’ home was put under an evacuation order on Wednesday.
In short, it’s a precarious situation and several out-of-control wildfires remain across Southern California at the time of writing. Worst of all, those strong winds could make the situation worse before it gets better, experts are warning.
So far, at least two people have lost their lives, while 1,000 structures have been destroyed.
It’s a devastating situation that’s quickly becoming a common fixture in the yearly news cycle. And the situation is bound to become worse as climate change continues to make extreme weather conditions more pervasive than ever before.
