Mother Nature’s wrath on America has been laid bare in new graphics depicting the devastating tornadoes and wildfires that have plagued the country in recent years.
The maps, developed by John Nelson, a UX & Mapping manager at IDV Solutions, highlight the areas most prone to the deadly natural disasters.
Areas in America’s south and west are shown to be hot spots for wildfires since 2001, including parts of California where firefighters have been battling blazes for three days.
A wildfire near the main route into Yosemite National Park has driven residents from at least 150 homes in the Sierra Nevada foothills and was still growing on Tuesday. Authorities in Colorado have also been fighting the most destructive wildfires in the state’s history but rain last night provided some relief.
The US Forest Service chief says hotter, drier conditions means wildfire season lasts two months longer than it did 40 years ago, according to the Daily Mail.
Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nelson has also tracked 56 years of tornadoes across America.
Tornado Alley in the Midwest, the scene of last month’s deadly tornado that killed 22 in Oklahoma, shows up in bright light blue on Nelson’s map.
Nelson says he created the stunning maps using just an excel spreadsheet which logged the longitude and latitude of the natural disasters along with other Government data.
In California, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant estimated that a couple of hundred homes homes were evacuated Monday evening although he said he did not have an exact number. That’s in addition to 150 homes evacuated since the fire began on Sunday.
The blaze six miles northeast of Mariposa has burned 2 and ½ square miles and remains 15 percent contained. It is being fought by 2,200 firefighters, up from more than 700 on Monday, Berlant said. Crews are clearing brush to create defensive space around homes, laying fire lines and dropping retardant from the air.
“Mother Nature is definitely giving us a run for our money,” Berlant said. Though temperatures are down, wind gusts of up to 20 miles per hours coupled with dry conditions could fuel the fire, he said.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed. One firefighter suffered a minor injury.
Highway 140 into Yosemite National Park remains open.
Samantha Weber, who lives in Midpines, a rugged, unincorporated area about 35 miles west of Yosemite, said she knew the fire was headed for her home when she saw charred leaves drifting at her.
“I saw entire leaves that are blackened and blistered just floating through the air,” Weber told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They looked like birds.”
The fire was helped by swirling winds and dry conditions that residents said are severe and arrived surprisingly early this year.
“It is kind of always dry here in the summer,” Weber said. “But it was an especially dry spring, so things are really dry.”
Ed Helms, his wife and three adult children were told to evacuate their home in Hites Cove on Sunday as they celebrated Father’s Day in the backyard.
“We had to leave the steaks we were cooking on the barbecue to pack up and get out,” Helms told the Modesto Bee.
The Red Cross has set up a shelter in Mariposa for evacuees.
The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
– with Associated Press