2A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Thanksgiving is coming up. What are you thankful for?
“I am very thankful
for my family and
friends, and the life
they give me, and the
love we share.”
Alva Alcantar,
Astoria
THE DAILY ASTORIAN // QUESTION OF THE WEEK
“I’m thankful for
family. And I’m just
thankful that we live
in a country where
we’re not starving,
and we have peace.”
“I’m thankful to live
in such a beautiful
place like Astoria.
The sun’s been shin-
ing, and I’ve been able
to enjoy such nice weather.”
Roseby Foss, Astoria
Lindsey Houska, Astoria
Scientists: Wind, drought worsen fires, not bad management
Facts undercut
Trump’s claims
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Both
nature and humans share
blame for California’s dev-
astating wildfires, but forest
management did not play a
major role, despite President
Donald Trump’s claims, fire
scientists say.
Nature provides the dan-
gerous winds that have
whipped the fires, and human-
caused climate change over
the long haul is killing and
drying the shrubs and trees
that provide the fuel, experts
say.
“Natural factors and
human-caused global warm-
ing effects fatally collude”
in these fires, said wildfire
expert Kristen Thornicke
of the Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research in
Germany.
Multiple reasons explain
the fires’ severity, but “for-
est management wasn’t one
of them,” University of Utah
fire scientist Philip Dennison
said.
Trump tweeted on Satur-
day: “There is no reason for
these massive, deadly and
costly forest fires in Califor-
nia except that forest man-
agement is so poor. Billions
AP Photo/John Locher
A search and rescue worker searches for human remains at a burned out trailer park
from the Camp Fire on Tuesday in Paradise, Calif.
of dollars are given each
year, with so many lives lost,
all because of gross misman-
agement of the forests.”
The death toll from the
wildfire that incinerated the
Northern California town of
Paradise and surrounding
areas climbed to 48, making
it the deadliest single blaze in
California history.
One reason that scientists
know that management isn’t
to blame is that some areas
now burning had fires in
2005 and 2008, so they aren’t
“fuel-choked closed-canopy
forests,” Dennison said.
In those earlier fires, Par-
adise was threatened but
escaped major damage, he
said. In the current blazes, it
was virtually destroyed.
The other major fire, in
Southern California, burned
through shrub land, not for-
est, Dennison said.
“It’s not about forest man-
agement. These aren’t for-
ests,” he said.
Jerry Sutherland will speak
on “George Geer: Astoria’s
First Rumrunner” at the Clat-
sop County Historical Soci-
ety’s Thursday Night Talks
lecture series.
The free event at Fort
George Brewery is held on the
third Thursday of each month.
The lecture begins at 7 p.m.
Sutherland first wrote about
Geer in “Calvin Tibbets: Ore-
gon’s First Pioneer.” During
his lecture, he will share new
information he has uncovered
about Geer since the book’s
publication in 2016.
For information about this
event, or other Clatsop County
Historical Society activities,
call 503-325-2203 or email
cchs@cumtux.org
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Disability
Rights Oregon wants the state
to prohibit law enforcement
officers from using police
dogs in jails to intimidate,
control or punish inmates.
The Oregonian reported
that Columbia County’s
jail in St. Helens is the only
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
56
47
43
Mostly cloudy
57
43
Considerable cloudiness
SUNDAY
59
39
Mostly cloudy
freeway, about 140 feet, Den-
nison said.
Southern California had
fires similar to the Wool-
sey fire in 1982, when winds
were 60 mph, but “the dif-
ference between 1982 and
today is a much higher pop-
ulation in these areas. Many
more people were threatened
and had to evacuated,” Den-
nison said.
California also has been
in drought for all but a few
years of the 21st century and
is now experiencing its lon-
gest drought, which began
on Dec. 27, 2011, and has
lasted 358 weeks, according
to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Nearly two-thirds of the state
is abnormally dry.
The first nine months
of the year have been
fourth-warmest on record for
California, and this past sum-
mer was the second-hottest
on record in the state.
Because of that, there are
129 million dead trees, which
provide fuel for fires, Thor-
nicke said.
And it’s more than trees.
Dead shrubs around the bot-
tom of trees provide what is
called “ladder fuel,” offering
a path for fire to climb from
the ground to the treetops and
intensifying the conflagration
by a factor of 10 to 100, said
Kevin Ryan, a fire consultant
and former fire scientist at the
U.S. Forest Service.
Advocacy group wants to ban
dogs used to control inmates
Sutherland the featured speaker
at Thursday Night Talks
The Daily Astorian
The dean of the University
of Michigan’s environmental
school, Jonathan Overpeck,
said Western fires are getting
bigger and more severe. He
said it “is much less due to bad
management and is instead
the result of our baking of our
forests, woodlands and grass-
lands with ever-worsening
climate change.”
Wildfires have become
more devastating because of
the extreme weather swings
from global warming, fire
scientists said. The average
number of U.S. acres burned
by wildfires has doubled over
the level from 30 years ago.
As of Monday, more than
13,200 square miles have
burned. That’s more than a
third higher than the 10-year
average.
From 1983 to 1999, the
United States didn’t reach
10,000 square miles burned
annually. Since then, 11 of
19 years have had more than
10,000 square miles burned,
including this year. In 2006,
2015 and 2017, more than
15,000 square miles burned.
The two fires now burn-
ing “aren’t that far out of
line with the fires we’ve
seen in these areas in recent
decades,” Dennison said.
“The biggest factor was
wind,” Dennison said in an
email. “With wind speeds as
high as they were, there was
nothing firefighters could do to
stop the advance of the fires.”
These winds, called Santa
Ana winds, and the unique
geography of high moun-
tains and deep valleys act like
chimneys, fortifying the fires,
Thornicke said.
The wind is so strong
that fire breaks — areas
where trees and brush have
been cleared or intention-
ally burned to deprive the
advancing flames of fuel —
won’t work. One of the fires
jumped over eight lanes of
one in the state that contin-
ues to allow the use of police
dogs against inmates, despite
recently paying $251,000 to
settle a federal lawsuit brought
by an inmate bitten by a dog.
The
sheriff’s
office,
though, didn’t admit liability
and said the dog was brought
in to remove an inmate who
was “threatening and throw-
ing and swinging things” at
deputies.
Disability Rights Ore-
gon plans to push for a bill
in the next legislative ses-
sion that would curb the use
of police dogs in jails to con-
trol inmates, saying in a report
that using a police dog pres-
ents unnecessary risks of harm
to staff and inmates.
57
38
Partial sunshine
City Councilor Brownson holds meet-and-greet
Periods of sunshine
The Daily Astorian
ALMANAC
REGIONAL WEATHER
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
43/56
Astoria through Tuesday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 56°/36°
Normal high/low ........................... 54°/41°
Record high ............................ 66° in 1999
Record low ............................. 21° in 1955
Tillamook
43/55
Salem
43/58
Newport
46/55
Sunset tonight ........................... 4:45 p.m.
Sunrise Thursday ........................ 7:16 a.m.
Moonrise today .......................... 1:07 p.m.
Moonset today ......................... 10:53 p.m.
Nov 15
Last
Nov 22
Coos Bay
45/60
New
Nov 29
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
12:18 a.m.
12:56 p.m.
Low
1.3 ft.
3.7 ft.
Hi
50
38
36
58
41
35
55
19
84
38
39
66
79
34
86
41
47
40
42
42
36
51
67
54
47
Today
Lo
38
22
24
33
22
27
34
-6
72
29
22
46
54
27
74
34
35
28
23
30
26
30
43
47
34
MEMORIAL
Burns
12/53
Saturday, Nov. 17
HANNA, Dickey Don — Memorial at 1 p.m., Christian Church of Warrenton, 1376 S.E. Anchor
Ave. in Warrenton; reception follows at Warrenton High School, 1700 S. Main Ave.
Klamath Falls
19/57
Lakeview
16/58
Ashland
36/63
PUBLIC MEETINGS
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
Hi
45
53
61
56
56
56
62
51
56
57
Today
Lo
23
29
47
39
46
19
33
42
46
45
W
pc
c
pc
c
r
pc
pc
sh
sh
c
Hi
53
57
62
58
55
57
62
56
55
59
Thu.
Lo
24
30
47
39
48
21
35
41
44
43
W
pc
pc
s
pc
c
s
s
pc
pc
pc
City
Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
53
50
52
59
55
56
40
57
51
47
Today
Lo
40
38
43
41
43
44
30
39
41
26
W
sh
c
sh
c
c
sh
sn
c
sh
c
Hi
54
53
56
59
58
55
44
57
55
53
Thu.
Lo
45
39
44
43
41
45
34
39
42
31
W
sh
pc
pc
pc
pc
c
c
c
pc
c
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
Baker
23/53
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Tonight's Sky: Deneb of Cygnus is about 15 times
as massive as the Sun and 50,000 times its bright-
ness.
High
7.0 ft.
6.7 ft.
Nov. 13, 2018
PATCHING, Charlotte Mae, 91 of Astoria, died in Astoria. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the arrangements.
Ontario
23/52
Bend
29/57
Medford
33/62
Dec 6
John Day
35/57
DEATH
La Grande
34/54
Roseburg
41/59
Brookings
48/64
UNDER THE SKY
Time
7:20 a.m.
6:19 p.m.
Prineville
26/58
Lebanon
39/57
Eugene
39/58
SUN AND MOON
Full
Pendleton
38/53
The Dalles
37/55
Portland
43/56
Precipitation
Tuesday ............................................ Trace
Month to date ................................... 1.76"
Normal month to date ....................... 4.38"
Year to date .................................... 48.49"
Normal year to date ........................ 50.60"
First
Astoria City Councilor Tom Brownson is holding a “Meet Your Councilor” event at 9 a.m. Sat-
urday at 3 Cups Coffee House, 279 W. Marine Drive.
Residents are invited to discuss city issues.
W
r
pc
s
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
s
sn
t
r
c
pc
pc
pc
s
s
s
sh
pc
Hi
47
36
40
58
48
38
61
5
84
38
47
70
79
41
84
41
53
36
56
38
36
53
66
55
40
Thu.
Lo
32
34
30
29
30
31
36
-3
73
26
30
47
55
31
61
29
41
35
30
36
29
33
44
50
38
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
c
c
pc
s
s
sn
s
s
pc
sn
s
s
s
pc
t
c
s
sn
s
sn
sn
s
pc
sh
i
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria School Board, 5:30
p.m., board retreat, Knight Can-
cer Collaborative Conference
Room, 1095 Exchange St.
Youngs River Lewis & Clark
Water District Board, 6 p.m.,
34583 U.S. Highway 101 Busi-
ness.
Wickiup Water District Board,
6:30 p.m., 92648 Svensen Mar-
ket Road, Svensen.
THURSDAY
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Transportation Advi-
sory Commission, 6 p.m., City
Hall, 989 Broadway.
Tuesday’s Lucky Lines: 3-6-10-
14-18-23-25-32
Estimated jackpot: $12,000
Tuesday’s Mega Millions: 34-
46-57-65-69, Mega Ball: 11
Estimated jackpot: $122 million
WASHINGTON
Tuesday’s Daily Game: 4-9-1
Tuesday’s Keno: 01-08-14-20-
22-24-25-27-35-42-51-55-57-62-
64-66-67-76-77-79
Tuesday’s Match 4: 09-13-14-23
LOTTERIES
OREGON
Tuesday’s Pick 4:
1 p.m.: 9-6-5-1
4 p.m.: 0-5-3-6
7 p.m.: 5-1-0-2
10 p.m.: 3-3-8-5
The Daily Astorian
Established July 1, 1873
(USPS 035-000)
Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-
325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to The Daily Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria,
OR 97103-0210
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