Interestingly enough, this may not be down to global warming.
theconversation.com/how-santa-ana-winds-fueled-th…
Jon Keeley, a research ecologist in California with the U.S. Geological Survey and adjunct professor at UCLA, explains what causes extreme winds like this in Southern California, and why they create such a dangerous fire risk.
I’m guessing those are better credentials than just about anyone around here has got.
My colleagues and I recently published a paper comparing 71 years of Santa Ana wind events, starting in 1948. We found about the same amount of overall Santa Ana wind activity, but the timing is shifting from fewer events in September and more in December and January. Due to well-documented trends in climate change, it is tempting to ascribe this to global warming, but as yet there is no substantial evidence of this.
Wish he had talked more about the lack of evidence. What did they learn?
California is seeing more destructive fires than we saw in the past. That’s driven not just by changes in the climate and the winds, but also by population growth.
More people now live in and at the edges of wildland areas, and the power grid has expanded with them. That creates more opportunities for fires to start. In extreme weather, power lines face a higher risk of falling or being hit by tree branches and sparking a fire. The area burnt because of fires related to power lines has greatly expanded; today it is the major ignition source for destructive fires in Southern California.
Overpopulation strikes again. We’re never going to outpace global warming if we don’t drop a couple of billion people.
realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club 4 months ago
Incompetence, not carbon, caused this particular fire. They needed to do more controlled burns which they refused to do, and properly water the trees and foliage which they also refused to do.
This was a case where California just didn’t take case of the state and it lead to destruction. Literally everyone knew that this would happen too, but they refused to do anything about it.