Wildfires’ impact as high as $150 billion — so far

The economic impact of the Western wildfires has been estimated at $130 billion to $150 billion, and the fire season isn’t over yet.

While a weather system swept into Oregon and Washington Friday, “We don’t see any rain in California any time soon,” David Samuhel of AccuWeather told a media call Friday morning.

Samuhel, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said the economic damage estimate in “all-encompassing,” including the fires that burned earlier this year in Arizona and New Mexico, then in Colorado, and now in California, Oregon and Washington.

It includes the more than $1 billion spent to fight the fires so far, plus the value of structures destroyed, and the health problems that will result among people breathing the smoke.

“It’s on the level of one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States.”

The impact on health alone is “incalculable.”

Boris Quennehen of the air quality research firm Plume Labs, explained that the biggest problem is particulate matter, the tiny bits of ash and soot the fires set floating in the air.

There are two types:

PM10, which are particles smaller than 10 microns, and microscopic PM2.5, particles smaller than 2.5 microns.

“They both have impacts, but the smaller ones are more dangerous because they can penetrate deeper into the lungs and even into the bloodstream, triggering chronic diseases,” Quennehen said.

And the concentrations have been deadly, with air quality index readings as high as 800. Anything above 300 is considered hazardous.

“It’s something that’s never been seen before in the United States,” he said. There have been some instances in China where levels that high have been seen, but here, even a bad smog day in Los Angeles would only get up to around 150 AQI.

And it’s been bad for weeks. Friday, for instance, was the first day in a while where Chico’s air quality was rated good, with an AQI lower than 50. Oroville only got down to the moderate level.

Quennehen said when the air is hazardous, it’s best for people to stay inside. Air conditioners have filters that catch the small particles. If you have to go out, N95 or P100 masks are needed. Surgical masks don’t protect against smoke.

The health impacts are limited to the West Coast, although smoke from the fires has been detected over Switzerland. As the smoke has moved east, it’s risen higher in the atmosphere where people aren’t breathing it in.

Samuhel said 7 million acres have burned so far in the West, the most since 2018. And the fire season runs through November in California.

He said the big problems here began with a mid-August when a tropical storm came ashore and triggered thousands of lightning strikes.

“That’s unusual. While it’s common in the West, there’s not a lot of lightning in California.”

Then in September a strong high pressure system came out of Canada into Colorado. It brought widespread snow, which put out the fires burning there, but it blew “hurricane-force winds” westward.

The wind fanned the lightning fires, and they raced across hundreds of thousand acres in just a day.

Quennehen said weather is the biggest factor in fire’s spread.

“The fires are so intense,” he said, “because the air is dry and the vegetation is dry. It makes it very easy to burn.

“Climate change doesn’t help.”