Thomas Fire Still Growing Under Longest Running Red Flag Warning
Brown smoke continues to spew from the Thomas Fire in this image captured by the Aqua satellite on December 14, 2017. A red flag warning which has been active for the last 14 days, the longest in California’s history, continues today. The Thomas Fire now stands at 252,500 and if the fire spreads another 2,000 acres, it will move into the number three spot. Not an auspicious record to hold. Close to 1000 structures have destroyed and another 218 damaged during this outbreak and one firefighter fatality has been attributed to the blaze according to CAL FIRE. The fire is 35% contained and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
That was written by NASA Goddard on December 15th, Bold mine. Today, that concern came true and the fire is at 269,000 acres:
#ThomasFire [update] Hwy 150 and Hwy 126, north of Santa Paula (Ventura County) is now 269,000 acres and 40% contained. Unified Command: CAL FIRE, @VCFD_PIO ,@LosPadresNF, and @VenturaCityFD. https://t.co/vfLtDXYjzO pic.twitter.com/vpyezW08vC
— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) December 17, 2017
The weather continues to be the catalyst for this fire. The worst possible conditions for fire growth are still in place. High winds with gusts up to 40 mph in Santa Barbara and up to 55 mph in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties with low humidity at the 10-20 percent range will continue through Sunday evening. These conditions cause extensive fire growth, not to mention poor air quality due to smoke and ash in the area.
NASA’s Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb and CAL FIRE.Image and information via NASA Goddard
From KTLA on December 15th:
“We put out plenty of red flag warnings, but we haven’t seen them out 12 days in a row. That’s unusual,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Curt Kaplan. “This has been the longest duration event that we have had a red flag warning out without any breaks.”
Definition of a Red Flag Warning:
A red flag warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to inform area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire combustion, and rapid spread.
Here is are the current warnings from the Los Angeles National Weather Service:
While California Governor Jerry Brown wants to blame “climate change” for the fire, suggesting that the weather is a direct result of climate change, it should be pointed out that we have only about 150 years of good weather data for California, and dry, drought like conditions existed for extensive periods long before the catch-all boogeyman of “climate change” entered the political blame-game. For example:
If “red flag warnings” had been invented in the past for weather during those dry periods, I wonder how many days the actual record would have been.Probably a lot longer than 14 days.
Politicians who throw out “climate change” as blame for any “out of our current experience” weather pattern are simply ignorant of climate history and banking on the electorate being ignorant as well.
Note: about 10 minutes after publication, this article was updated to reflect new acreage values on the Thomas Fire from CalFire information, along with updated wind gust information.
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“Eucalyptus trees are an invasive species.”
I watched the Oakland firestorm of 1991 from my sailboat.
This reminds me, there are two kinds of boats. Those that have sunk, and those that have not sunk yet.
The point is natural disasters are inevitable. The record I like is that few people die because of emergency planning.
Fire and floods are part of our world. We have learned to mitigate somewhat but too many people add more fuel for the fires.
I noticed there is a lot of talk of embers being blown long distances by strong winds. Is there an issue with asphalt or cedar shingles versus tile? Perhaps there’s a reason why a “Spanish tile” roof is a hallmark of California Mission-style architecture.
A recent fire (set by teens with fireworks) on the Oregon side of the Columbia River carried embers to the Washington side, perhaps a mile away. I haven’t seen any reports, if it was measured.
Tile is heavy and more costly.. Metal costs more,
One of the reports of a house that burned in CA included a “before” and a “during” set of photos.
It was above a hillside with small trees and shrubs. There were overhangs, such as a bedroom balcony and a deck. The down hill area should have been cleared and covered with gravel. Otherwise the building can’t be protected.
See:
http://firewise.org/
Flammable roofing shingles are the stupidest possible material for roofing in a fire prone area. Tiles or preferably metal roofs (no gaps for embers) with metal gutter guards offer the best protection, together with a generator powered sprinkler system.
As long as California’s EPA rules prohibit/severely limit controlled-burns of hillside undergrowth, there will ALWAYS be huge wildfires in California as decades worth of underbrush builds up until HUGE wildfires occur through massive uncontrolled wildfires…
Global Waaaarming isn’t causing these wildfires, Loony Leftists are.
It’s also looking like sick arsonists started many of these raging fires…., which, I guess, could be construed as “manmade”…
Or maybe: “terror” inspired…
How much CO2 was produced from all the fires?
Solar panels and wind turbines where meant to stop all of this?
In the 2009 busfires in Victoria , Australia over 1 million acres were burnt with extensive loss of life. Reading some of the stuff above about power line maintenance and clearing and general brush clearing, its depressing to think that lessons hard learned elsewhere dont seem to travel at all.
Best of luck to those involved.
I still say maybe they should bring in the “big guns” when the small fire(s) is/are first reported and eradicate it initially.
I agree with your statement 100%, my heart gets broken every time the NFS drags their feet on a “natural” fire up in the forests. But look at the progression map for this fire. There was nothing the authorities could have done at the time that would have prevented this from becoming a monster. There was also the “Creek Fire” that same early morning that basically became an instantly out of control monster. And over the next couple days other fires. So resources on hand were diluted. And resources from central and northern California and neighboring states take at least a day or two to get on the scene and deployed.
October 1999 I was in Milpitas California, at a company named Hybrid Communications learning about thier wireless WAN technomlogy and it’s O.S.S.’s . At noon one day we stepped outside the front door and the class instructor pointed up to the green hills and said, “see all those houses and mansions they’er buiolding up there they are all going to burn, those green hills turn brown in the summer and the dead grass bulds up over the years then grass fires sweep through the hills and those hills are black and chared”.
&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMilpitas%2C_California&docid=Hhjqr9qEvY6SvM&tbnid=KgRAKDq84t-zTM%3A&vet=1&w=250&h=187&bih=618&biw=980&ved=0ahUKEwjkxKj6g5TYAhVk7YMKHXeECxgQwJUBCAMwAA&iact=c&ictx=1
Ignorant people building where they should`nt !!
Between Jerry in California and Kate in Oregon, we can just refer to the west-coastal governor’s as the ‘burn it down Browns.’
These are the leaders we’ve got out here – who actually get elected on platforms like: ‘things are never going to get better, there’s nothing we can (or will) do about it, and just get used to it.”
Because, after all, they have a higher morality – they’re saving the planet – so what’s a few thousand acres, and people’s property, not to mention culling out a few of those over-populated humans.
My guess is that the next script they follow will be something out of ‘Logan’s Run.’
“Retired Kit P,
I’d like to learn more about the project. Any links?ing ”
Sorry Caleb. By the time the feasibility study was done, the only winners were lawyers litigating the California energy crisis.
The basic process is to find the root cause of a problem and find a corrective action. In this case one solution is producing power with excess biomass.