CG lightning can occur with both positive and negative polarity. The polarity is that of the charge in the region that originated the lightning leaders. An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30,000 amperes (30 kA), and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and 500 megajoules of energy.
Statewide, 19 wildfires greater than 1,000 acres in area are currently raging, according to the NIFC. The active fires have ravaged more than 630,000 acres, destroying approximately 200 homes and threatening another 12,000, according to Washington state officials.
A 1910 wildfire that raged across three Western states helped advance the nationâs conservation efforts. The forest fire of 1910 ripped through the town of Wallace, Idaho leaving it in complete shambles. Excerpted from The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, by Timothy Egan, Â© 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.