December Wildfires Are Now A Thing

This story is in the beginning appeared High Country News and is part of Climate Desk agreement.

In Southern California, December wildfires are unusual but not the norm. And this year, dry conditions and Santa Ana storms created a perfect backdrop for late-season wildfires.

On the night of December 9, a Franklin fire burned in the hills above Malibu, to droph about 3,000 acres in just 24 hours. As of noon on December 12, the fire was less than 10 percent contained, burning more than 4,000 acres and causing at least seven houses.

Last month, a Mountain Fire it burned under similar conditions in nearby Ventura County, growing to 1,000 acres in the first hour. Within two days it was over 20,000 acres; 240 homes were destroyed before firefighters arrived in early December.

And it has not yet rained, since the Fire on the Mountain, or in all the falls.

It is true that the Santa Ana wind—a dry wind that blows from the desert to the coast and brings with it low humidity, sometimes less than 10 percent—tends to occur in summer and winter. But what is not good is the lack of rain to catch Southern California right now, although this area is not technically in a drought on.

The weather station for the city of Los Angeles is located recorded only 5.7 inches of rain this year, and not even a quarter of an inch fell in December, which is usually the middle of the region’s wet season. Most years would have been wet for three or more days during this time, enough to eliminate the danger of wildfires; about 90 percent of the region’s rainfall falls they are coming between October and the end of April.

“We are still waiting for the onset of rain in that region, which will soak up the oil and pose a serious fire risk,” he said. John Abatzoglouprofessor of meteorology at the University of California, Merced.

During the rainy season, the windy weather provides a low risk of fire. But now, “when there is a fire and a blow of the wind,” as Abatzoglou said, the place is on fire. Dry grass and herbs are ready to burn, and fire accident The Los Angeles County Fire Department on December 11, the day the fire was at its highest, was at or above the highest in the Los Angeles Basin, the Santa Monica Mountains, and the Santa Clarita Valley. “It hasn’t rained yet this season in Southern California,” he said Daniel Swainclimate scientist at UCLA. “That’s the key.” He is a real bowler.”

Tornadoes associated with bone-dry vegetation are not a Southern California problem. Drought creates wildfire danger across the country-time of East Coast‘s spring and fall fire season For example. And a winter fire has broken out elsewhere in the West: the Colorado movement Marshall Fire started on December 30, 2021, from a small grass fire to a raging fire that burned more than 1,000 homes in just one hour.