Unusually intense Santa Ana winds have fueled catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles during the city's rainy season, highlighting the severity of the ongoing drought and the escalating threat of year-round fire danger.
A lethal combination of drought and powerful desert winds has fueled the catastrophic mid-winter fires in Los Angeles in what should be the city’s rainy season. Flames were being pushed by Santa Ana winds topping 97km/h in some places, and were expected to increase to 160km/h in mountains and foothills – including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.The Santa Ana winds were behind most of southern California’s worst wildfires in history.
They topple powerlines, rapidly turn a spark into an inferno, and they can make fires run downhill. Former Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner Greg Mullins, who has spent years studying and fighting fires alongside Californian firefighters, said: “I’ve fought fires during Santa Anas, and it’s scary because the fires run downhill just as fast as they do uphill.” “Those winds can be horrendous, and they are so dry that it does not matter if it is hot, you just get these incredible blast furnace fires.”The Santa Ana winds are strong, gusty winds that bring hot, dry air from the desert to the Los Angeles basin. They are not unusual in autumn and winter, but they are usually far less intense. They tend to coincide with the wettest season of the year. Los Angeles’ rainy season occurs from October to April, with most rain falling from December to February. This year, large parts of southern California, including most of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties, are in drought. Los Angeles has not recorded rainfall over 2.54 millimetres – the threshold that would reduce wildfire risk – since last May.In Santa Rosa in northern California who has been covering fires in the state for nearly 40 years, said the fire season had turned into an all-year phenomenon, especially in southern California. When he was in the Los Angeles area two weeks ago, he was shocked by how dry it was.“They haven’t had any measurable precipitation since about July,” Porter sai
WILDFIRE DROUGHT SANTA ANA WINDS CLIMATE CHANGE LOS ANGELES
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