Unusually parched with fierce gusts

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the return of offshore wind power is expected to keep fire danger high across the region through Friday morning. Storm Prediction Center.

Santa Ana winds pick up speed as they blow westward down the Great Basin and are typical for this time of year. But when winds gust over the mountains of Southern California toward the Pacific Coast, conditions are usually not completely dry.

“Normally, everything would be wet by now, which means the chances of a fire leading to an out-of-control conflagration like what we're seeing now are much lower,” Moritz said. .

The Palisades Fire has already burned more than 15,000 acres. The Eaton Fire, which broke out in the Pasadena and Altadena areas Tuesday night, has burned more than 10,000 acres. In Sylmar, the Hearst Fire also grew to 500 acres. According to of CalIfornia Forest and Fire Protection Service (California) fire).

All three fires have a 0% containment rate, and firefighting efforts are facing difficult conditions due to continued strong winds.

These catastrophic fires are expected to become more frequent as climate change amplifies the ingredients that help wildfires ignite and spread. Most of California's largest wildfires have occurred in the past decade. According to Cal Fire.

Fires are usually caused by hot, dry, and windy conditions. Moritz said there isn't enough research yet to know whether climate change is causing significant changes in winds, but said global warming is already having an impact on rainfall and droughts. .

“Climate change is causing more erratic and extreme precipitation patterns,” he said. “This effect on precipitation is very important because we have wetter periods and drier dry periods, and overall the timing of precipitation has become very erratic.”

That means areas like Southern California could experience severe flooding at one point, like in March, and then go into drought months later. Moritz said vacillating between these extremes puts people and their communities at high risk.

“This is a climate signal in all of this that we have now opened this window where such large-scale, devastating extreme events can occur,” he said. Ta.