CAL FIRE Mobilizing for Santa Ana Winds

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

CAL FIRE NEWS RELEASE California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection CONTACT: Duty Information Officer RELEASE October 20, (916) 651-FIRE (3473) DATE: 2017 @CALFIRE_PIO CAL FIRE Mobilizing for Santa Ana Winds SACRAMENTO – After one of the deadliest and most destructive weeks in California’s history, firefighters are preparing for another significant wind event in Southern California. The National Weather service has issued several Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches across Southern California starting this weekend through early next week due to gusty winds, low humidity and high temperatures. In response to these anticipated conditions, CAL FIRE is increasing its staffing levels with additional firefighters, fire engines, fire crews, and aircraft to respond to any new wildfires. “This is traditionally the time of year when we see these strong Santa Ana winds,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, director of CAL FIRE. “and with an increased risk for wildfires, our firefighters are ready. Not only do we have state, federal and local fire resources, but we have additional military aircraft on the ready. Firefighters from other states, as well as Australia, are here and ready to help in case a new wildfire ignites.” The weather warnings stretch from Santa Barbara, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties. The winds are expected to reach gusts of up to 50 mph, along with record breaking heat, fire danger in these areas is high. It is vital that the public use caution when outside and avoid activities that may spark a new fire. Any new fires can spread rapidly under these types of weather conditions. “Outdoor activities that may spark a fire should be avoided,” said Chief Thom Porter, CAL FIRE’s Southern Region Chief. “It is important that the public be vigilant and follow the Ready, Set, Go action items, especially under these types of conditions where fires move very fast.” For more fire preventions tips and evacuation steps visit: ReadyForWildfire.org # # # .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

California Fire Siege 2007 an Overview Cover Photos from Top Clockwise: the Santiago Fire Threatens a Development on October 23, 2007
CALIFORNIA FIRE SIEGE 2007 AN OVERVIEW Cover photos from top clockwise: The Santiago Fire threatens a development on October 23, 2007. (Photo credit: Scott Vickers, istockphoto) Image of Harris Fire taken from Ikhana unmanned aircraft on October 24, 2007. (Photo credit: NASA/U.S. Forest Service) A firefighter tries in vain to cool the flames of a wind-whipped blaze. (Photo credit: Dan Elliot) The American Red Cross acted quickly to establish evacuation centers during the siege. (Photo credit: American Red Cross) Opposite Page: Painting of Harris Fire by Kate Dore, based on photo by Wes Schultz. 2 Introductory Statement In October of 2007, a series of large wildfires ignited and burned hundreds of thousands of acres in Southern California. The fires displaced nearly one million residents, destroyed thousands of homes, and sadly took the lives of 10 people. Shortly after the fire siege began, a team was commissioned by CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service and OES to gather data and measure the response from the numerous fire agencies involved. This report is the result of the team’s efforts and is based upon the best available information and all known facts that have been accumulated. In addition to outlining the fire conditions leading up to the 2007 siege, this report presents statistics —including availability of firefighting resources, acreage engaged, and weather conditions—alongside the strategies that were employed by fire commanders to create a complete day-by-day account of the firefighting effort. The ability to protect the lives, property, and natural resources of the residents of California is contingent upon the strength of cooperation and coordination among federal, state and local firefighting agencies.
[Show full text]
The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity
fire The 2007 Southern California Wildfires: Lessons in Complexity s is evidenced year after year, the na- ture of the “fire problem” in south- Jon E. Keeley, Hugh Safford, C.J. Fotheringham, A ern California differs from most of Janet Franklin, and Max Moritz the rest of the United States, both by nature and degree. Nationally, the highest losses in ϳ The 2007 wildfire season in southern California burned over 1,000,000 ac ( 400,000 ha) and property and life caused by wildfire occur in included several megafires. We use the 2007 fires as a case study to draw three major lessons about southern California, but, at the same time, wildfires and wildfire complexity in southern California. First, the great majority of large fires in expansion of housing into these fire-prone southern California occur in the autumn under the influence of Santa Ana windstorms. These fires also wildlands continues at an enormous pace cost the most to contain and cause the most damage to life and property, and the October 2007 fires (Safford 2007). Although modest areas of were no exception because thousands of homes were lost and seven people were killed. Being pushed conifer forest in the southern California by wind gusts over 100 kph, young fuels presented little barrier to their spread as the 2007 fires mountains experience the same negative ef- reburned considerable portions of the area burned in the historic 2003 fire season. Adding to the size fects of long-term fire suppression that are of these fires was the historic 2006–2007 drought that contributed to high dead fuel loads and long evident in other western forests (e.g., high distance spotting.
[Show full text]
Categorization of Santa Ana Winds with Respect to Large Fire Potential
Categorization of Santa Ana Winds With Respect To Large Fire Potential Tom Rolinski1, Brian D’Agostino2, and Steve Vanderburg2 1US Forest Service, Riverside, California. 2San Diego Gas and Electric, San Diego, California. ABSTRACT Santa Ana winds, common to southern California during the fall through early spring, are a type of katabatic wind that originates from a direction generally ranging from 360°/0° to 100° and is usually accompanied by very low humidity. Since fuel conditions tend to be driest from late September through the middle of November, Santa Ana winds occurring during this time have the greatest potential to produce large, devastating fires when an ignition occurs. Such catastrophic fires occurred in 1993, 2003, 2007, and 2008. Because of the destructive nature of such fires, there has been a growing desire to categorize Santa Ana wind events in much the same way that tropical cyclones and tornadoes have been categorized. The Offshore Flow Severity Index (OFSI), previously developed by Predictive Services, is an attempt to categorize such events with respect to large fire potential, specifically the potential for new ignitions to reach or exceed 100 ha based on breakpoints of surface wind speed and humidity. More recently, Predictive Services has collaborated with meteorologists from the San Diego Gas and Electric utility to develop a new methodology that addresses flaws inherent in the initial index. Specific methods for improving spatial coverage and the effects of fuel moisture have been employed. High resolution reanalysis data from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model generated by the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UCLA is being used to redefine the OFSI.
[Show full text]
News Headlines 01/21/2021
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ News Headlines 01/21/2021 Strong winds create hazardous driving conditions, bring fire danger and power shutoffs across SoCal Spectacular House Fire Lights Up the Sky in Yucca Valley Early This Morning 1 Strong winds create hazardous driving conditions, bring fire danger and power shutoffs across SoCal Rob McMillan, Marc Cota-Robles and Sid Garcia, ABC7 News Posted: January 19, 2021 at 12:55PM San Bernardino County Fire Engineer, Eric Sherwin, warns ABC7 News “The tendency to start a ‘warming’ fire can result in destructive and truly out-of-control fires very quickly.” He encourages residents to report fires right away to give Firefighters the opportunity to knockdown fires before the wind takes control. FONTANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Dangerous Santa Ana winds are whipping through the Southland, bringing increased fire danger and causing hazardous driving conditions as thousands are under the threat of having their power shut off. Southern California on Tuesday will be hit with the trifecta of increased winds, low relative humidity and low moisture, prompting firefighters to be on alert. A huge area is affected - from Santa Clarita to the high country, from the Los Angeles basin to the Santa Monica Mountains and all the way to the coast. In the highest elevations, gusts could reach up to 90 mph. Those gusts posed a challenge for some drivers in Fontana Tuesday morning, where at least five big rigs flipped over near the 15 and 210 freeway interchange. Nobody was hurt, but several other drivers stopped on the side of the freeway to wait for the strong gusts to subside.
[Show full text]
III. General Description of Environmental Setting Acres, Or Approximately 19 Percent of the City’S Area
III. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING A. Overview of Environmental Setting Section 15130 of the State CEQA Guidelines requires an EIR to include a discussion of the cumulative impacts of a proposed project when the incremental effects of a project are cumulatively considerable. Cumulative impacts are defined as impacts that result from the combination of the proposed project evaluated in the EIR combined with other projects causing related impacts. Cumulatively considerable means that the incremental effects of an individual project are considerable when viewed in connection with the effects of past projects, the effects of other current projects, and the effects of probable future projects. Section 15125 (c) of the State CEQA Guidelines requires an EIR to include a discussion on the regional setting that the project site is located within. Detailed environmental setting descriptions are contained in each respective section, as presented in Chapter IV of this Draft EIR. B. Project Location The City of Ontario (City) is in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County and is surrounded by the Cities of Chino and Montclair, and unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County to the west; the Cities of Upland and Rancho Cucamonga to the north; the City of Fontana and unincorporated land in San Bernardino County to the east; the Cities of Eastvale and Jurupa Valley to the east and south. The City is in the central part of the Upper Santa Ana River Valley. This portion of the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel Mountains to the north; the Chino Hills, Puente Hills, and San Jose Hills to the west; the Santa Ana River to the south; and Lytle Creek Wash on the east.
[Show full text]
Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index
Developing and Validating the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index Tom Rolinski1, Robert Fovell2, Scott B Capps3, Yang Cao2, Brian D”Agostino4, Steve Vanderburg4 (1)USDA Forest Service (Predictive Services), Riverside, CA, United States, (2)Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (3)Vertum Partners, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (4)SDG&E, San Diego, CA, United States 65 60 LFP depicting Santa Ana Wind Events 2007-2014 55 Santa Ana Events – weather parameters only 50 Santa Ana Events – weather and fuels 45 40 35 LFP 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1- Introduction 2- Methodology From the fall through spring, offshore winds, commonly referred • The SAWTI which predicts Large Fire Potential (LFP) during to as "Santa Ana" winds, occur across southern California from Santa Ana wind events, is informed by both weather and fuels Used by fire agencies and the general public, the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index (SAWTI) was made publically available on September 17, 2014. The product Ventura County south to Baja California and west of the coastal information. can be accessed at: santaanawildfirethreat.com mountains and passes. Each of these synoptically driven wind • We define LFP to be the likelihood of an ignition reaching or events vary in frequency, intensity, duration, and spatial coverage, exceeding 250 acres or approximately 100 ha. thus making them difficult to categorize. Since fuel conditions • For SAWTI, the following equation was formulated: 4- Operational SAWTI tend to be driest from late September through the middle of In 2013, the SAWTI was beta tested through a controlled 2 November, Santa Ana winds occurring during this time have the 퐿퐹푃 = 푊푠 퐷푑퐹푀퐶 release via a password protected website.
[Show full text]
Santa Ana: a Dangerous Wind
ample, they are called mistrals in southern elevation. France, chinooks in the Rocky Mountains In the case of California’s Santa Anas, Geography and boras in northeast Italy and Slovenia. the air that reaches the coast may be very In The In the U.S. Southwest, the katabatic winds hot. Air that descends in elevation heats are called Santa Ana winds. through a process known as adiabatic News™ Winds blowing out of high pressure warming. As air descends, it is compressed cells generate katabatic winds, often be- and it warms at 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit per ginning as cold winds. These high pres- 1,000 feet (1 degree C/100 m). sure cells, containing cold, dense air, may Additionally, katabatic winds are very, Neal Lineback become situated over mountains or high very dry winds. Having originated as and Mandy Lineback Gritzner plateaus. Because air tends to move from cold, dry air and then warmed adiabati- high pressure areas toward surrounding cally, this air may arrive at sea level with low pressure, the air rushes outward from a relative humidity below 10 percent. The SANTA ANA: the center of the high pressure area and temperature of typical Santa Ana wind gravity pulls it into the valleys below. The may exceed100 F (37.8 C) by the time it ap- A DANGEROUS air’s relative weight causes it to hug the proaches sea level. ground. Santa Ana winds normally occur in WIND As the air ﬂ ows toward the lowlands, its Southern California in the fall season fol- Blistering Santa Ana winds whipped velocities increase.
[Show full text]
Damaging Downslope Wind Events in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California
DAMAGING DOWNSLOPE WIND EVENTS IN THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCOTT SUKUP NOAA/NWS, Oxnard, California 1. Introduction The complex terrain of southern California (Fig. 1) poses a number of forecast challenges for various types of wind events that impact the region. For example, there are the well documented “sundowner” winds along the Santa Ynez Range of Santa Barbara County (Ryan 1996). There are also the infamous and heavily researched Santa Ana winds that can fuel large wildfires throughout much of southern California (Raphael 2003). Another type of wind event that is less well-known is the “Palmdale Wave”, which affects the Antelope Valley in Los Angeles (LA) County (Fig. 2), and is associated with strong south or southwest flow over the San Gabriel Mountains (Kaplan and Thompson 2005). The San Gabriel Mountains (SGM) also play an important role in damaging northerly wind events that impact the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) and eastern portions of the San Fernando Valley (SFV) (Fig. 2). Like the “Palmdale Wave”, there is little research on this last type of wind event and thus it is the focus of this paper. The motivation for this paper largely comes from an extreme northerly wind event that brought widespread damage across much of the SGV and eastern portions of the SFV from the late evening hours on 30 November 2011 through the early morning hours on 1 December 2011 (Fig. 3). Some of the highlights of this event include: 13 Proclamations of Local Emergency; 350,000 residents in the SGV losing power, some for over a week; an estimated $40 million in damages; a ground-stop and multiple power outages at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) that resulted in 23 flights being diverted to Ontario International Airport (ONT).
[Show full text]
Variability of Marine Fog Along the California Coast
VARIABILITY OF MARINE FOG ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST Maria K. Filonczuk, Daniel R. Cayan, and Laurence G. Riddle Climate Research Division Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California 92093-0224 SIO REFERENCE NO. 95-2 July 1995 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................1 2 . Climatological and Topographic Influences ................................2 2.1. General Climatology ...................................................2 2.2. Topography .............................................................3 3 . Background and Objectives ...................................................5 3.1 . Fog Mechanisms .......................................................5 3 .2. Objectives ...............................................................6 4 . Data .............................................................................6 5 . Climatology of West Coast Fog .............................................13 5.1. Seasonal Variability .................................................. 13 5.1.1. Coastal Station Fog Climatology .................................. 13 5.1.2. Marine Fog Climatology .............................................16 5.2. Interannual Variability ...............................................21 5.2.1. Coastal Stations .......................................................21 5.2.2. Marine Observations .................................................31 6 . Local Connections with Marine Fog ......................................
[Show full text]
California Wildfires: a Demographic Time Bomb That Has Exploded
California Wildfires: A Demographic Time Bomb That Has Exploded March 2020 TransRe California Wildfires | 1 | March 2020 Insight Into Wildfire The wildfire exposure of the Western United States vegetation (brush and trees). Dead vegetation fuels (California, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada) has fires. Extended dry seasons overlap with seasonal increased as the population in the wildland-urban winds to fan those fires. Westward winds then push interface has grown. This paper focuses on how the fires through exposed areas faster. demographic changes and climate changes impact one state, California. Wildfires are a global, not just national issue. Changing climate conditions and human development trends Approximately 90% of US wildland fires are caused by remain key factors in wildfire generation and impact. people (according to the U.S. Department of Interior). Further study of the implications of these changes is The other 10% are started by lightning, lava etc. required to improve the responses to the issue. Several environmental factors affect wildfire behavior – including atmospheric conditions, fuel supply and Proactive Wildfires Exposure Management topography. The factors are highly variable, but when combined they create dangerous conditions that 2019 conditions still favored wildfires, and there were make wildfire behavior difficult to predict. many ignitions. In October 2019, PG&E took preventive measures and de-energized its grid, to avoid arcing and We observe Californians relocating from expensive, equipment failures during high wind events. urban areas to more rural locations. Whether due to cost of living, or quality of life, this population shift PG&E cut power to ~800,000 electric and gas means greater human development around a natural customers in nine counties (all except San Francisco) catastrophe exposure.
[Show full text]
A Vertical Perspective of Santa Ana Winds in a Canyon. Berkeley, Calif., Pacific SW
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST Forest and Range FOREST SERVICE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE P.O. BOX 245, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94701 Experiment Station U.S.D.A. FOREST SERVICE RESEARCH PAPER PSW- 52 /1969 Ryan , Bill C. 1969. A vertical perspective of Santa Ana winds in a canyon. Berkeley, Calif., Pacific SW. Forest & Range Exp. Sta., 13 p., illus. (U.S.D.A. Forest Serv. Res Paper PSW-52) Vertical cross-section isentropic and streamline analyses were made of three cases of light Santa Ana winds in southern California. Data were obtained by means of an instrumented aircraft, a GMD-2 Rawin set, two double-theodolite pibal stations, and recording surface weather stations. The streamline analyses reveal clearly the significant depth of the wind field down the lee side of the range, and how opposing wind systems interact on the lee side to allow rapidly changing surface winds. Oxford: 431 .1 : 111.5 :(794). Retrieval Terms: fire weather; fire behavior; foehn winds; Santa Ana winds; cross-section analysis; streamline analysis; southern California. Ryan , Bill C. 1969. A vertical perspective of Santa Ana winds in a canyon. Berkeley, Calif., Pacific SW. Forest & Range Exp. Sta., 13 p., illus. (U.S.D.A. Forest Serv. Res Paper PSW-52) Vertical cross-section isentropic and streamline analyses were made of three cases of light Santa Ana winds in southern California. Data were obtained by means of an instrumented aircraft, a GMD-2 Rawin set, two double-theodolite pibal stations, and recording surface weather stations. The streamline analyses reveal clearly the significant depth of the wind field down the lee side of the range, and how opposing wind systems interact on the lee side to allow rapidly changing surface winds.
[Show full text]
When I Think of Wildfires, I Think Of…
When I think of wildfires, I think of… . Santa Ana Winds The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry offshore winds that affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California in autumn and winter. They can range from hot to cold, depending on the prevailing temperatures in the source regions, the Great Basin and upper Mojave Desert. The winds are known for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall, and are infamous for fanning regional wildfires. Meteorology The National Weather Service defines Santa Ana winds as "Strong down slope winds that blow through the mountain passes in southern California. These winds, which can easily exceed 40 mph, are warm and dry and can severely exacerbate brush or forest fires, especially under drought conditions." It is often said that the air is heated and dried as it passes through the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, but according to meteorologists this is a popular misconception. The Santa Ana winds usually form during autumn and early spring when the surface air in the elevated regions of the Great Basin and Mojave Desert (the "high desert") becomes cool or even cold, although they may form at virtually any time of year. The air heats up from adiabatic heating during its descent. While the air has already been dried by orographic lift before reaching the Great Basin as well as by subsidence from the upper atmosphere, the relative humidity of the air is further decreased as it descends from the high desert toward the coast, often falling below 10 percent.
[Show full text]