Wind and Weather
See also: 2007 Western North American heat waveThe fires occurred at the end of a dry summer and were exacerbated by the seasonal Santa Ana winds. The San Diego Union Tribune reported, "Santa Ana winds blowing up to 60 mph (97 km/h) combined with temperatures into the 90s to create in the worst possible fire conditions." At one point swirling winds threatened to bring fire into densely populated urban areas.
Southern California was in the midst of an unusual drought; in Los Angeles, California, with only 3.21 in (82 mm) of precipitation in 2006-2007, it was the driest year on record. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness turned the chaparral into fire fuel. Officials believed that some of the fires generated their own winds, similar to the Oakland Firestorm of 1991. The effects of the smoke were felt as far away as Brentwood, California (in the East Bay, near Stockton), where it impacted local weather. The high-speed Santa Ana winds also rendered the use of dropping water from fire fighting aircraft inefficient; until such winds abate, most payloads of water are just dispersed by the wind over an area so large that the water evaporates before it can reach a large fire on the ground.
Read more about this topic: October 2007 California Wildfires
Famous quotes containing the words wind and, wind and/or weather:
“Day after day, throughout the winter,
We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason
In a world of wind and frost....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“O love, my love! if I no more should see
Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,
Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,—
How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope
The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death’s imperishable wing?”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
“We can not weather all this gold.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)