Renewable Revolution

Bob Henson  ·  December 11, 2017, 3:40 PM EST


Above: The Multi Spectral Imager of the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured this false-color image of the burn scar and active burn areas of the Thomas Fire in Southern California on Tuesday, December 5, during its first phase of rapid growth. The fire has since burned much further beyond the left and top of the image. Active fires appear orange; the burn scar is brown. Unburned vegetation is green; developed areas are gray. The Sentinel-2 image is based on observations of visible, shortwave infrared, and near infrared light. The city of Ventura is at far lower right. https://go.nasa.gov/2B6Drov

Partial Article:

ore than 6000 firefighters were engaged in a furious effort on Monday to contain the Thomas Fire, the largest of the multiple wildfires that have pummeled Southern California over the past week. The Thomas Fire made an enormous westward surge on Sunday, consuming tens of thousands of acres in Santa Barbara County and reducing the fire’s total containment level from 15% to 10%. Incredibly, the 57,000 acres burned between Sunday and Monday morning far exceeded the entire coverage of October’s catastrophic Tubbs Fire in the Santa Rosa area (36,807 acres).­

As of Monday morning, Cal Fire reported that the Thomas Fire had officially consumed 230,000 acres and at least 790 structures, making it the fifth largest and tenth most destructive wildfire in state history. Two of the top 20 most damaging fires occurred in November, but none of the previous top 20 fires in terms of acreage occurred any later than October—much less in December, well beyond the typical tail end of wildfire season. It’s entirely possible this fire will burn till Christmas and beyond, and not out of the question it will roll past the Cedar Fire of 2003 (273,246 acres) to become California’s largest fire on record.

On Monday morning, evacuation zones extended to the northern and eastern outskirts of the city of Santa Barbara and included coastal communities from Summerland to Carpinteria (see Figure 1). The University of California, Santa Barbara, postponed its final exams till early January.


Figure 1. Evacuation zones in Santa Barbara County as of 8 am PST Monday, December 11, 2017. Mandatory evacuations (red) cover a huge swath of higher terrain. Voluntary evacuations (orange) extend even further west, while also including more than 10 miles of land along the coast from the eastern end of the city of Santa Barbara to east of Carpinteria. If you are in the region of the Thomas Fire, please consult local authorities for the latest evacuation guidance. Image credit: County of Santa Barbara, via Google My Maps.


Figure 2. Christmas decorations illuminated a house in Carpinteria, Calif., on Sunday, December 10, 2017, as the growing Thomas Fire advanced toward seaside communities in Santa Barbara County. Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images.

Stubborn offshore flow, dry air will continue to hamper firefighting

Crews have gotten the upper hand on the other major fires that broke out last week. All of them were at least 75% contained as of late Sunday. However, the Thomas Fire is a beast unto itself. Control efforts have been complicated by the fire’s sheer scope, the ruggedness of the terrain, and the ample fuel present in the form of thick brush. Although major fires have occurred in the rugged land of Santa Barbara County every few decades, some tracts of land in this area reportedly haven’t seen a major fire for more than a century.

If nothing else, fire weather across coastal Southern California will be less extreme this week than last week. The highly amplified upper-level ridge has weakened and shifted north, and the pressure contrasts pushing air from the Great Basin toward and over the coastal ranges will be less intense overall. On the down side, however, surface winds will continue to blow in a downslope/offshore direction, allowing the air to warm as it descends. As a result, temperatures will remain well above average, especially during the daytime, and relative humidity will continue to dip into the 5-15% range. Weaker winds in general will be a major help in firefighting, though any periods of intensified wind could help the Thomas Fire take advantage of the very dry atmosphere.

In its Monday morning outlook, the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center put coastal southern California in “elevated” fire risk for both Monday and Tuesday. The center noted the possibility of an upgrade to “critical” (the second highest level) if winds increase somewhat on Tuesday, as models suggest.

In the longer range, forecast models continue to suggest a dry pattern across Southern California and the Southwest U.S. prevailing for at least the next 1-2 weeks.   


Full article:

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/still-raging-thomas-fire-torches-its-way-california-wildfire-history