Red Flag Warnings in effect for much of California

(UPDATED at 5:30 a.m. PST November 12, 2018)

The Red Flag Warnings in Central and Northern California expire Monday morning. In Southern California south of Santa Barbara they are in effect until 5 p.m. Tuesday for 20-35 mph winds gusting to 55, and, 3 to 10% relative humidity.

(Originally published at 7:27 a.m. PST November 11, 2018)

The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for much of California, predicting strong winds and low humidities that could spread existing wildfires and force new ignitions to grow quickly.

The warnings in the central and northern part of the state expire Sunday night or early Monday morning. The details vary a bit from location to location, but the forecasters expect north to east winds at 20 to 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 with 5 to 10 percent humidities.

Red Flag Warnings California wildfires
Red Flag Warnings issued November 11, 2018 for California.

In Southern California the warnings are in effect Sunday through Tuesday for northeast winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts at 45 to 55, along with single digit relative humidities. There will be little humidity recovery during the night during this period. The strongest winds will be Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Great video of drop by a DC-10

DC-10 retardant drop
Screengrab from the video below of a drop from a DC-10. Check out the shadow.

In the image above the shadow is very cool.

10 Tanker Air Carrier just sent out a tweet with a link to the video below that is on a Facebook page. It is titled “Rocky Fire”, but had no description. I am unaware of a current fire with that name. I thought it looked familiar, and I found that we had a YouTube copy of it in August, 2015. The Rocky Fire burned almost 70,000 acres near Clear Lake, California. At any rate, it’s a great video, so you’re getting another opportunity to see it — the YouTube copy — which is the same as the one on Facebook.

Videos of Firehawks working the Woolsey Fire along Malibu coast

The above video shot from a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter at the Woolsey Fire as it flies near the coast at Malibu, California is very impressive — especially if you watch it in full screen.

I certainly feel for the residents of the homes seen in these images.

The next two videos show the LA County helicopters borrowing water from residential swimming pools. I expect the homeowners are more than willing to give up some of their water if it can help save their residence.

LA County FD helicopters are supporting firefighters on the ground 24-hours a day.

More information about the Woolsey Fire.

President threatens again to cut fire funding

(Originally published at 9:01 a.m. PST November 10, 2018)

President Trump is in France but early Saturday morning he weighed in on Twitter with commentary about the wildfires in California that this week have killed nine people, destroyed over 6,000 residences, burned more than 190,000 acres, and 200,000 people have been forced from their homes.

Mr. Trump made a similar threat on October 17, 2018.

The Camp and Woolsey Fires both burned during very strong wind events — so extreme that air tankers and helicopters could not assist firefighters on the ground. Because of the immediate threat to the local populations, wildland firefighters had to abandon attempting to suppress the fires, and switched to saving lives.

As noted below by former firefighter James Sinko who is now with The Weather Channel, the area of the Camp Fire has had only 0.14 inch of precipitation since the first of June, and 0.88 since May 1.

And on a more lighthearted note, check out the contribution below of Mr. Duhnkrack. You’ll need to click on the photo once or maybe twice to see the entire image.

Mr. Nixon was wetting down his shake shingle roof as a wildfire burned near his San Clemente, California home.

Wildfire smoke map November 10, 2018

wildfire smoke forecast november 10 2018

Above is the forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires at 6 p.m. PST November 10, 2018.

UPDATE at 11:20 a.m. PST November 10, 2018:

At 11:20 a.m. PST Saturday the air quality north of Sacramento was Unhealthy to Very Unhealthy.

Air Quality SacramentoAt this time the air quality web site AirNow.gov is down. Perhaps because so many smoke-affected people are trying to access it.