A wildfire is tearing through Los Angeles once again, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in its wake.
While it is not clear exactly how this one began, most wildfires are usually traced back to manmade errors, such as an unattended campfire or discarded cigarette.
Weather and environmental conditions then dictate how severe and widespread the fires become.
Experts say that heavy rains from El Niño last year fueled vegetation growth in Los Angeles area, which had since dried out and become highly flammable.
Once ignited, strong winds then fanned the flames.
Southern California was battered by ‘devil winds’, formally known as Santa Ana winds, which are warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of region toward the coast.
They are also dryer due to moving in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific into the region.
The Santa Ana winds pushed humidity levels to drop and dried out vegetation that then became susceptible to fire.
The tremendous wind speeds are capable of stoking any spark into a rapidly spreading devastating fires that engulf thousands of acres in hours.
The Palisades fire, currently the largest of 35 active blazes, has consumed nearly 3,000 acres and is zero percent contained
The Santa Ana winds, also known as the ‘devil winds,’ are extremely dry, high-speed winds that periodically blow from the inland mountains to the coast of Southern California
Santa Anas are created by high pressure over the Great Basin, which is the desert interior of the West overlapping several states.
The sinking air dries out as it moves in a clockwise pattern toward Southern California, where it encounters towering mountain ranges that divide the desert from the coastal metropolitan areas.
The air the starts to gain speed as it passes over mountains and canyons, becoming drier and warmer as it moves on.
Earlier this week, an area of high pressure in the Great Basin combined with a developing storm in northwestern Mexico to create Tuesday’s windstorm, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Gwen Fieweger.
The Santa Ana winds moved nearly 90mph through Southern California Tuesday, and with January’s already bone-dry conditions, it did not take long for fires to start.
The Palisades fire, currently the largest of 35 active blazes, sparked around 10:30 am Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of Los Angeles located between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
It has consumed nearly 3,000 acres and is zero percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Later that evening, the Eaton fire ignited near a nature preserve in Altadena, California around 6:30pm. It has consumed more than 2,000 acres and is zero percent contained.
These rapidly-spreading fires were sparked by a Santa Ana windstorm that hit Southern California on Tuesday
The fires have destroyed more than 1,000 buildings throughout the affected area, and more damage has yet to come, officials warn
Within 24 hours, fires consumed nearly 6,000 acres, prompting Governor Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency as fires destroyed over 1,000 buildings, triggered nearly 400,000 power outages and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
At least two have reportedly been killed and many have suffered serious injuries, with officials warning that the worst is yet to come.
‘Everyone is at the mercy of the wind right now,’ President of the California professional firefighters union Brian Rice told CNN.
He told reporters that gusts of 60 to 80mph are currently ravaging the state. ‘You’re not going to control that,’ he said.
‘It is hurricane-force winds,’ Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Sheila Kelliher said on CBS on Wednesday. ‘It’s extreme.’
The winds are not expected to let up anytime soon. On Tuesday, meteorologists predicted that the storm will continue through Wednesday and finally begin to weaken Thursday.
‘The strongest winds are expected through mid-afternoon Wednesday. Winds will slacken on Thursday, but remain gusty in parts of Southern California,’ The Weather Channel reported.
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