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discoveries/camp_fire_burn_scar.discoveries.mdx

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-    ## Introduction
+    ## Introduction: The 2018 Camp Fire
     Wildfires burn thousands of acres of land every year, resulting in drastic changes in land use and land cover (LULC). The ‘burn scars’ left behind by these wildfires have the potential to alter local weather, climate and hydrology. A typical example of the drastic change in LULC is the fire scar that resulted from the November 2018 Camp Fire that devastated Paradise, California. The Camp Fire occurred from November 8-25, 2018, burning over 153,000 acres and causing $16.65 billion (2018 USD) in damages. The Camp Fire began was initiated by a faulty transmission line maintained by PG&E, resulting in 85 fatalities and 17 injuries. The Camp Fire was the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018, and remains the 6th deadliest wildfire in U.S. history as of 2023. 95% of the city of Paradise, CA was destroyed, and 18,804 buildings were destroyed by the fire.     
 
     A dominant pathway through which wildfires affect local weather, climate and hydrology is via alteration of land-atmosphere interactions. Removal of vegetation by wildfires cause surface albedo (proportion of sunlight reaching the surface that is reflected) to increase, which reduces the amount of energy deposited by sunlight at the surface. The emissivity of the surface (efficiency for emitting/absorbing infrared radiation) can decrease following a wildfire, leading to a reduction in loss of energy from the surface in the form of infrared radiation. The net radiative energy deposited at the surface is transported as heat and moisture (through evaporation and transpiration) into the atmosphere and the rest as heat flow into deeper layers of the surface. The presence of vegetation at the surface influences how the radiative energy deposited at the surface is partitioned into heat and moisture fluxes into the atmosphere. When vegetation is present at the surface, it increases resistance to airflow and increases the efficiency of heat and moisture transport to the atmosphere. Further vegetation roots can access water from over a deeper layer of the soil. Thus removal of vegetation by wildfire alters the amount of heat and moisture removed from the surface and land surface temperature.