California Girds for Severe Fire Season as Dry Lands Burn

[Purveyor]

By Michael B. Marois - May 6, 2013
Californians are preparing for a prolonged season of wildfires after an unusually dry winter that left millions of acres of scrub brush in the most populous U.S. state primed to burn.

The tinder-box conditions have sparked more than 840 wildfires since January, about 320 more than the five-year average, according to the state Forestry and Fire Protection Department, known as Cal Fire. A fast-moving fire in Ventura County over the weekend charred an area the size of San Francisco, forced the evacuation of a college with 4,900 students and threatened 4,000 homes northwest of Los Angeles.

Wind-swept fires across the state following similarly dry winter months in 2008 burned more than 1.2 million acres and killed 13 firefighters, according to Cal Fire. In 2007, firestorms swept through Southern California, destroying 1,500 homes, displacing almost a million residents and killing 17.

“It’s pretty shocking that we are having fires of this size already,” said Bill Stewart, a professor of forest economics and policy with the University of California at Berkeley. “It could be a big one. I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed 2007.”

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/california-wildfire-prompts-evacuations-north-of-l-a-.html

[villager]

1. Our future on climate change.

n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. That plus the Santa Ana winds are coming 6 mos early...

which is a really important part of the problem.

[Brother Buzz]

3. In this case, the Santa Ana winds were late

Santa Ana winds typically occur from October into March. The operative word is typically.

The climate is what you expect; the weather is what you get.