As Wildfires Get More Extreme, Observatories Are at Greater Risk

It was 4 am on June 17 when Michelle Edwards, associate director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, got the news: A wildfire had breached the road up to the telescopes. She felt a little bit of fear, even though she’d already spent several long days coordinating the observatory’s protection plan, turning her office into a command center for a firefighting effort. “I don’t think you can ever really anticipate that phone call,” Edwards says.

The Contreras wildfire had been triggered by a lightning strike six days prior on Tohono O’odham nation lands in Arizona, a few miles southeast of the summit where Kitt Peak is located. Winds and dry vegetation

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