The  Lahaina wildfire lasted less than a day and killed 100 .  Watch a  video .  The Los Angeles County fires are now into Day 5, with 11 confirmed deaths.  However no doubt this number will increase once investigators can check on the results.  While winds have  since the worst diminished, gusts could rise to 70 MPH tonight through the weekend into Monday.   Summary of LAC wildfires: 39,000 acres covered. 12,000 structures destroyed. While 11 have been killed, an additional 13 are missing. Overall, containment is only 11%. At least 153,000 residents are still under evacuation orders. Check NBC News for updates . NASA previously determined that 2023 was the planet's warmest year on record, and this week confirmed that  2024 is now the hottest year  since at least 1880.   Why 1880?  That is when record-keeping began.   Further, Earth is now 2.65 F hotter than the average from 1850 to 1900.   Scarily...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and your usual assortment of organizations keep warning that one of the dangers of climate change is the increase in wildfires.  In the U.S. there was a doubling of forest fire burned area over the 1985 to 2015 period.  And it will get worse into the future.   When Donald Trump re-assumes office on January 20, you can be certain that there will be a major shift in concern.  Maybe they will use data from  Our World in Data,  for if you click on that, you will see that from 2012 to 2024, the area burnt by wildfires has remained relative constant, if not reduced over the past dozen years. Some of this makes sense, for drier conditions mean less growth, leading to smaller wild fires.  However. as we will see about Los Angeles County, the exact opposite situation prevailed.  It rained so much a year ago, that there was so much dried up biomass, with seasonally natural wind conditions followed by ...

First, on the Congressional front: 52-year old Mike Johnson ( on the left ,  becomes 53 on January 30 ), from Louisiana, narrowly, and with some difficulty, was voted on the first ballot as Speaker of the House.  This was expected, but was nevertheless an embarrassment the way it happened. 63-year old  John Thune  ( he turns 64 on January 7 ), from South Dakota, is now Majority Leader of the Senate, replacing Mitch McConnell. Then, the daily Donald Trump incident.   Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump's bid to dismiss the case, and said the sentencing will be announced on January 10 , ten days before Inauguration Day.  Whew for Trump, for the judge did also say that there will be no jail sentence at this time.  Huh?  Well, let's see what Merchan says on January 10. The Sentry Tournament of Champions is being played in Kapalua on Maui,  15 miles north of the village of Lahaina , which was decimated last year by fire.  How different they ...