Axios

A massive wildfire in northern California is a symptom of the American West's suffering from climate whiplash — oscillating between periods of extremely wet and dry conditions exacerbated by a warming atmosphere.

Why it matters: This whiplash, coupled with decades of land management practices that have strictly limited fire from the landscape, is increasingly creating conditions in some places for destructive and devastating fires.

The Park Fire in California now ranks as the state's fourth-largest blaze on record, surpassing the SCU Lightning Complex from 2020.

Why it matters: The record shows how a mixture of long-term climate change, short-term weather conditions and land management can combine to produce a rapidly spreading and massive blaze.

The higher that global average temperatures climb, and the longer they stay at such heights, the greater the odds that potentially devastating climate tipping points will be triggered, a new study finds.

Why it matters: The research makes clear how every tenth of a degree of warming matters, and decisions made to cut emissions now could reverberate for centuries.

A potentially deadly heat wave is expanding from the Central U.S. to both coasts, with 104 million people under heat warnings and advisories early Friday.

Why it matters: The extreme heat poses an acute public health risk, particularly since it will last more than a week in some places.