Essential Items to Pack for a Wildfire Evacuation
A quick guide on the essential items to pack when evacuating due to a wildfire. Stay prepared and ensure your safety with this checklist.
Multiple wildfires devoured thousands of acres in Southern California in September on the heels of the state’s fourth-largest fire in history, the Park Fire, that ignited at the end of July.
The Bridge Fire in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties is the largest active fire in California. As of Wednesday night, it had expanded to over 50,000 acres with no containment.
Why are there so many fires in California?
A paper published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire last year synthesized the various reasons fires have become larger and more severe in California and the West since 1980. Among those reasons is climate change.
But at a more general level, Californians are seeing wildfires right now for several reasons.
Currently, California is headed toward that “prime time” of seeing larger, damaging and quicker-moving fires, said Robert Foxworthy, a spokesperson with Cal Fire.
“This is historically when you see that, and that’s because we’re further into the summer — all those fuels have continued to dry out through the part of the year where we haven’t had much precipitation,” he said.
California’s hot summer has only added to driving the moisture out of fuels, said Foxworthy. Fuels is a term used to describe things that burn, such as vegetation, explained the Northwest Fire Science Consortium.
The state faced its warmest summer on record this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.
“Basically, we’re just moving further into the summer, and those conditions are more favorable, and that includes dry air mass, dry receptive fuels that are that are dying off and continuing to dry out, and those warm temperatures and low humidities, along with wind that’s led to a lot of the growth that we’ve seen, especially on the fires in Southern California that are currently burning,” Foxworthy said.
How does the wildfire season for 2024 compare to previous years?
There have been 6,090 wildfires in California this year as of Thursday, according to Cal Fire. Those fires have burned a combined 988,774 acres.
Compared to last year this time, that’s an additional 1,017 fires and about a 290% increase in the number of acres burned.
However, comparing this year’s numbers to a five-year average paints a less dramatic picture. The five-year average shows about 5,940 wildfires burning 902,926 acres around this time.
“In the scheme of things, that’s still pretty close,” Foxworthy said of Wednesday’s figures. The five-year average figures and the number of fires and acres burned in 2024 had a slightly larger gap Wednesday.
He pointed out that California has had both busy and quiet fire seasons over time. Southern California has seemed to have the latter in recent years, he said, unlike Northern California (some of those fires were due to lightning as well as different fuel conditions).
More: Fires rage across California: The latest on sizes, containments, evacuations
Will there be more fires in California this year?
Foxworthy said it’s difficult to “predict exact weather conditions that are going to lead to fires.”
Californians can look to the Northern and Southern California Geographic Coordination Centers’ monthly fire outlook maps through December.
A portion of Northern California faces an above-normal chance of fire potential in September. That fire potential returns to normal for October through December.
Portions of Southern and Central California also face an above-normal fire potential for September. Portions of Southern California — along its coast, north of Los Angeles, toward the Coachella Valley and down into San Diego — will see above-normal fire potential in October and November as the rest of the region returns to normal.
By December, only the South Coast may see above-normal fire potential, and that’s due to the chance that fall may be drier than normal, according to the fire outlook map.
Paris Barraza is a trending reporter covering California news at The Desert Sun. Reach her at pbarraza@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
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Publish date : 2024-09-11 12:59:00
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