Article from wunderground.com
Jonathan Belles
Published: November 9, 2018
California’s Camp Fire rapid growth Thursday night into Friday was a direct result of a near perfect windy concoction of canyon gusts and building high pressure aloft and the unfortunate location of Paradise.
(LATEST NEWS: Camp Fire Kills At Least 5 in Paradise)
Well to the west and early on Thursday, high pressure was taking control of the wind flow in the eastern Pacific.
The fire ignited in a canyon east of Paradise early Thursday morning, according to Cal Fire, then by late day winds aloft were turning northeasterly and increasing across California. The fire arrived in parts of Paradise Thursday afternoon as winds increased.
Gusty winds on the east side of a bulge in the jet stream helped create favorable conditions for fires in California on Thursday.
These winds worked their way down into the Sierra Nevada mountain range where the air was forced down toward Paradise through canyons.
By late Thursday, the fire was swiftly blown westward and southwestward through Paradise and into the Central Valley by strong canyon winds.
Gusts in the highest terrain of the nearby Sierra Nevada climbed to 60 to 65 mph as winds shifted overhead. Meanwhile, winds in the Central Valley remained light.
In between, a station in Jarbo Gap, near the site where the Camp Fire ignited, recorded gusts between 40 and 50 mph for at least 9 hours from Thursday evening into Friday morning. Sustained winds ranged from 20 to 30 mph out of the northeast.
Relative humidity remained less than 20 percent during the period of highest gusts and fell as low as 11 percent Thursday evening.
Both of these conditions enhanced critical fire weather conditions overnight.
This large-scale pattern went on to sustain Santa Ana-driven fires late Thursday into early Friday across Southern California, including the Woosely and Hill fires.
(MORE: Why California’s Wildfires Are Most Destructive in Fall)
The weather conditions came after one of the hottest and driest periods of weather in California history.
Brush in the area was surely dry and ripe for becoming food for the rapidly moving fire.
Paradise, California had only picked up 3 percent of their average rainfall for October and November through Nov. 7 – a measly 0.14 inches of rain. The ground in central and northern California was actually losing more moisture than it was taking in.
The Sierra Nevada and nearby Central Valley are experiencing abnormally dry conditions, according to the Climate Prediction Center.
(MORE: Developing El Niño and California’s Upcoming Wet Season May Be Good News for the Fire Risk)
Wildfire Perspective
The Camp Fire is one of the fastest growing fires in California.
The blaze grew to nearly 30 square miles within the first 12 hours after erupting in higher terrain near Pulga, California. It then grew by another 78 square miles in the next 12 hours ending early Friday morning.
According to Cal Fire, the Camp Fire burned new ground at a rate of 6.5 square miles per hour from Thursday evening through early Friday morning. That’s like burning down one of New York City’s Central Park every 12 minutes.
To compare this fire to other recent fires, let’s take a look at 2017’s Thomas Fire and 2015’s Valley Fire. Both of these fires were fast moving and destructive in southern and central California.
At least 40,000 acres or 62 square miles burned in the first 12 hours of the Thomas Fire after it ignited northeast of Oxnard, California.
The Valley Fire moved at a similar rate after it ignited 70 miles west-northwest of Sacramento, California, or near the town of Cobb.
‘There aren’t very many fires in California’s history that have done that,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at Stanford University, told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. “I don’t know if there really is a precedent for it.”
The Camp Fire grew even faster – at a pace of roughly 50,000 acres or 78 square miles from 8 p.m. Thursday through 8 a.m. Friday.
Recent Comments