![]() The air quality in Southern California is the worst it's been in more than 10 years. ![]() As it begins to spin, it can elongate, and sometimes that spin can come back down all the way to the ground in the form of a large fire vortex.” begins to rotate either because the ambient wind conditions are favorable, or because the local topography forces that cloud to rotate a bit. So a big fire can serve as that heating source.Īnd in the case of a large fire vortex like we saw on the Loyalton Fire up by Reno, essentially what you need is a tall pyrocumulus cloud that has a very strong updraft from the heat in the fire. It's sort of like a hybrid type of cloud that only occurs when there's a strong heating source near the surface. It was a result of a very intense pyrocumulus cloud, which is really a fire plume that takes on the characteristics of a regular old thunderstorm. “That event occurred even before this weekend's thunderstorms in the Bay Area, but I think it was fair to call it a firenado or a pyro tornado. We saw incredible images near Reno of what is being described as a firenado. In some of the places that did see a couple of downpours from those thunderstorms, it was so hot before and after the storms rolled through that some of the smoldering underbrush that otherwise might have been extinguished by more significant rainfall managed to spring to life when the winds picked up, and became full-fledged fires.” There were some thunderstorms in Northern California that produced wind, lightning, even heat bursts, but very little precipitation. Dry lightning just means that you have a thunderstorm with cloud-to-ground lightning that can spark fires, co-occurring with either very little or no precipitation at all. “The big problem with the lightning that occurred this weekend in Northern California is that much of it was dry lightning. Some of these fires last night made really unbelievably large runs in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the hills east of Napa, and are now threatening populated areas really in almost every corner of the Bay Area.”ĭid these storms come with rain, and why didn't that help abate some fires? What happened next was over the weekend, a very unusual system of thunderstorms brought thousands of lightning strikes to Northern California, centered actually on the San Francisco Bay Area in particular.Īnd since that time, dozens – if not more - of brand new wildfires have sprung up in the wake of that lightning storm. So the backdrop of all of this is extreme heat over a relatively prolonged period. The backdrop is essentially a record-breaking prolonged heat wave that's been going on now for over a week in some places, and has broken a number of long-standing temperature records, both in Northern and Southern California near the coast and even in the inland deserts.ĭeath Valley hit 130 degrees this weekend. ![]() KCRW talks with UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain about why this extreme weather is happening, and whether this kind of heat and humidity should be expected every summer in Southern California.ĭaniel Swain: “It really is a confluence of multiple extreme events occurring simultaneously throughout the state. Grateful for our firefighters, first responders, and everyone on the frontlines protecting Californians during this time. ![]() We’re currently battling 367 known fires. And everyone is stuck at home because of the COVID-19 crisis.ĬA has experienced 10,849 lightning strikes in the last 72 hours and WORLD RECORD heat temperatures. There’s record heat and rolling blackouts. Multiple wildfires are burning across the state, and some are inducing tornadoes.
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