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NRaleighLiberal

(60,015 posts) Thu Dec 7, 2017, 12:07 AM Dec 2017

Weather Und. - "Even Worse Fire Weather to Come as Blazes Rage over Southern California"

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/even-worse-fire-weather-still-come-blazes-rage-over-southern-california

by Bob Henson

One of the most widespread fire outbreaks in many years across Greater Los Angeles ratcheted to new levels on Wednesday, and conditions will become even more fire-supportive on Thursday all the way from L.A. to San Diego. By Wednesday afternoon, five separate blazes had already scorched more than 83,000 acres and at least 150 structures. The fires were being fed by a prolonged round of warm, dry Santa Ana winds ripping across a bone-dry landscape.

Unfortunately, the winds will only intensify from late Wednesday through Thursday. The National Weather Service is predicting gusts of 50 – 60 mph at lower elevations and as high as 75 mph across hillsides for up to 18 – 24 hours, an unusually long interval for Santa Ana winds of that strength. (More typically, Santa Ana winds peak overnight and weaken by day, as was the case on Tuesday). Relative humidity is expected to dip well below 10%, especially as temperatures rise during the day Thursday.

BREAKING Fire chief Ralph Terrazas says Los Angeles faces the highest risk of wildfire tomorrow that he’s seen in his entire 31 year career.

— James Cook (@BBCJamesCook) December 7, 2017
The biggest fire development on Wednesday was the growth of the Skirball Fire in the mountains between central Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, along the east side of Interstate 405. Several homes in the affluent Bel Air neighborhood had been lost by Wednesday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Times. The blaze was less than 5 miles from the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, where classes were cancelled on Wednesday afternoon and a men’s basketball game for Wednesday night was cancelled.