SoCAL is on fire! (Again)

[billie_morini]

There are 10 significant wildfires burning between Santa Barbara and San Diego. The largest one began in Ventura county and moved north to Santa Barbara county. To-date, this fire has become the 5th largest wildfire in California history.

This fire has burned north into the mountains and along the coast. Infamous Rincon Point at the county line was evacuated! The fire advanced an unprecedented 23 miles north in the foothills behind Mussel Shoals, La Conchita, Summerland, and Monticeto. Sunday night the fire was 6 miles from my home and the fire fighters thought it'd be less than 3 miles by morning. We prepared for two scenarios: 1) evacuation with little notice, and 2) hunker down without utilities and closed highways. My 15 year old niece (from Cologne, Germany) lives with us and has been receiving a new educational experience as Uncle Bill and Aunt Sandra prepared. I took my niece to the community meeting held in a public auditorium to learn more about the hazards and the efforts to control them.

Fortunately, the Santa Ana winds that were driving the fire slowly decreased from 80 mph to 30 mph. These winds combined with 8 years of drought made a heck of a recipe. Our air quality is horrible. School was cancelled from 7 DEC through 15 DEC. This brings the kids right up to a three week Christmas holiday. The good news is the kids will not be required to make this lost time up! Final exams at nearby University of California Santa Barbara were cancelled until the week of 8 JAN.

Santa Barbara, my neighborhood, and my property look like show flurries fell for several days. We've actually had ash falling since the fire began. Roxy Ridgeback has cabin fever because she cannot go outdoors due to bad air quality and all the ash on the ground. While our air quality is bad, conditions are still worse for many folks and friends. Ranchers lost horses and cattle. Farmers lost crops, especially avocado. Homes and businesses were destroyed.

I'll post some photos and maps.

[billie_morini]

A local friend told me that part of living in Santa Barbara is there always are fires. I found the two attachments to share with you. One shows fire locations in my region since 1990. I crudely drew in the present Thomas Fire location within Santa Barbara county (blue geometric shapes in lower right hand corner). The other one shows fire locations between 1900 and 2015.

[billie_morini]

Major fires: 1990 to 2017

[billie_morini]

Fires from 1900 through 2015

[billie_morini]

Surf mobile: 1st morning. Much more ash fell since then.

[billie_morini]

1st morning. Washed surf mobile. Strung tarp to protect it.

[billie_morini]

Community Meeting #1. Television crews broadcast the meeting live. First time my young niece attended such meeting and saw multiple television stations working same event.

[billie_morini]

Ash in agave in my garden (e.g., front yard for Yanks)

[billie_morini]

Ground surface along driveway. Much more ash accumulated since this snapshot was made

[billie_morini]

View out back garden to Santa Ynez Mountains on first day. Cathedral Peak (rocky mountain peak) in background. We have not seen it since.

[billie_morini]

Today's pink sun at about 15:00

[jaffa1949]

Stay safe Billy, a major issue in Aussies fire like this is ember attack, , anywhere levels come on.the wind and accumulate is where embers can land. Standard practice is to have a good hit of water nearby to quench the pile if you haven’t cleared it away.
Amazingly most people don’t know how far an ember attack can penetrate an urban area from a Buschland fringe on high dry winds!

Stay safe and clean ir soon! Winter rains be upon you!

[billie_morini]

This fire is amazing. Santa Ana winds in Ventura an Los Angeles counties drove it 24 miles north to us in less than 2 days! The fire is so large and hot, it created it's own mushroom cloud and created it's own winds. We've had 8 years of drought in the Central Coast. Even when Winter 2016-2017 produced so much precipitation and snow that the Governor removed the Emergency Drought Conditions for the State of California, we were still in bad straits. Our condition was simply down-graded one step from Extreme to Significant drought conditions.

It is a relief to see this July 2017 news report about a study completed at UC Riverside (https://phys.org/news/2017-07-californi ... ntury.html):

California projected to get wetter through this century

"new research, published today in the journal Nature Communications, predicts that California will actually get wetter. The scientists from the University of California, Riverside predict the state will get an average of 12 percent more precipitation through the end of this century, compared to the last 20 years of last century.

The researchers found different rates of precipitation increase for northern, central and southern California. Northern California, which they define as starting just north of Santa Rosa, would increase 14.1 percent. Central California, which starts just south of San Luis Opispo, would go up 15.2 percent. Southern California would actually decrease 3.3 percent.

They also found the winter months of December, January and February, when California traditionally gets the bulk of its precipitation, would account for much of the overall increase in precipitation. During those three months, precipitation levels would increase 31.6 percent in northern California, 39.2 percent in central California and 10.6 percent in southern California.

All these percentages are in comparison to data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project observed between 1979 and 1999." More info at link. Graphic below provided with story.

[oldmansurfer]

I was reading about wildfires in California and apparently there has been more than three times the entire acreage of Kauai burned in California in 2017.

[BoMan]

Thanks for the great information. It's scary how fast fire can move in high winds.

The link below is updated daily and allows scrolling and zooming on areas of interest.

http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2017-ventura-county-wildfire?hl=en&llbox=34.805%2C33.649%2C-116.444%2C-119.959&t=TERRAIN&layers=5%2C16%2C17

[dtc]

Mate, keep safe. Fires are fascinating in a way but terrifying in more ways

[billie_morini]

Two days with reduced wind made things appear promising. However, weather report is that wind will increase as week proceeds. Presently, see attached map.
Black line = fire footprint (nearly 240,000 acres [97,200 hectares])
Red Zone = mandatory evacuation
Orange zone = voluntary evacuation (goes all the way west to Hwy 154)
Red dot = my home (2.2 miles from southwest corner of mandatory evac zone)

[billie_morini]

Stay safe Billy, a major issue in Aussies fire like this is ember attack, , anywhere levels come on.the wind and accumulate is where embers can land. Standard practice is to have a good hit of water nearby to quench the pile if you haven’t cleared it away.
Amazingly most people don’t know how far an ember attack can penetrate an urban area from a Buschland fringe on high dry winds!

Stay safe and clean ir soon! Winter rains be upon you!

We have 10 gallons (38 L) of freshwater and 5 gallons of salt water (left overs from high school science experiment) in buckets on the patio. We also have two different garden hoses ready to go. Do not tell the city officials that one of these by-passes the meter so that it is always entergized as long as the city system has pressure.

[saltydog]

I see that as of Sunday 12/17, this fire is the 3rd largest wild fire in California with only 40% containment. Most of the hillside neighborhoods in Santa Barbara are under the evacuation order. Hope you and your family are safe, Billie!

[billie_morini]

The fire fighting effort is astounding. Not many nations can assemble the quantity of resources on hand; certainly not in such brief period. This the present count:

Total Fire Personnel: 8,529
Total Fire Engines: 972
Total Fire crews: 166
Total Helicopters: 34
Total Dozers: 77
Total Water Tenders (water tank trucks): 94
Total Fixed Wing craft: variable from 2 to 30 depending on conditions