But he added that the cooler weather and cloudiness were encouraging: “That’s going to help firefighters get a toehold in the environment and start containing the fire,” he said. “Are we out of the woods yet? No, there’s still a long firefight ahead of us,” Rob Scott, a fire behavior analyst at the U.S.
The rain did not reach the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento, where the explosive Mosquito fire continued to rage uncontrolled, but the authorities said that the cooler temperatures and humidity on Friday and through the weekend were creating a crucial window for getting a handle on the blaze. Roseen said he did not have information about what may have caused the crash. The three people onboard, a pilot and two firefighters, sustained moderate injuries and were taken to a hospital. Late on Saturday afternoon, state fire officials said that a privately owned helicopter that they had contracted to help with firefighting efforts crashed as it was landing at a nearby airport. “Whether it is super hot, or whether it is super cold, raining or whatever, but if you notice every incident that’s going on anywhere in the United States is because it’s weather caused. “I am scared that the weather is going to take us down eventually,” Ms. Tassone, 58, said she was not comforted by the weather patterns. On Saturday, she was arranging transportation home for her bedridden mother after the evacuation order for her parents’ mobile home park had been lifted.Īlthough Tropical Storm Kay did not end up exacerbating the fire that had sent her family fleeing, Ms. Maryann Tassone spent two nights at an evacuation shelter in Hemet, not far from the blaze. By Friday night, it was 40 percent contained, according to officials, and some evacuation orders had been eased to warnings. The Fairview fire was just 5 percent contained by Friday morning. There were no reports of mudslides in the region. “There was fairly heavy rain overnight - probably the brunt of what Tropical Storm Kay was going to bring - over the area,” said Rob Roseen, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. And overnight, steady rain helped firefighters control the blaze, which had burned more than 28,300 acres and had destroyed or damaged about 30 buildings as of Saturday morning. Wildfires are the single biggest threat.īut though there were some toppled boats and muddy parking lots in beach towns where high tides sometimes inundate streets, significant flooding wasn’t reported in Southern California.įor firefighters and residents facing the state’s most dangerous active blazes, the weather on Saturday prompted sighs of relief - even if climate change ensures that any respite from dangerous fire conditions in California is temporary.īut by Friday evening, officials said that winds were much less intense than feared. A Changed Trail: For thru-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail, the imprint of climate change is now felt along the entire route.Scientists are using technology to ensure they can be done safely in a warming world. Prescribed Burns : The age-old practice is key to reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.Smoke Pollution: Smoke from wildfires has worsened over the past decade, potentially reversing decades of improvements in Western air quality made under the Clean Air Act, according to new research.In Harm’s Way : As wildfires grow larger and more severe across the United States, more Americans than ever are moving to parts of the country more likely to burn.Temperatures in Southern California were mostly in the 80s on Saturday, and forecasters predicted scattered showers through the weekend from the remnants of Tropical Storm Kay.Īcross the region, residents saw gray skies and stepped into warm, damp weather that felt more like the weather in a rainforest than the baking sunshine they had grown accustomed to. He added: “That’s obviously kind of a joke, because it’ll still be in the 90s.”
“It’ll almost feel cold out there today compared to last week.” “Thankfully, this historic heat wave is coming to an end,” said Cory Mueller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, where temperatures reached a record 116 degrees on Tuesday. So residents felt exalted when Saturday came cooler and wetter than the days before. Several new blazes ignited and quickly burned through bone-dry vegetation, sending thousands fleeing from their homes. LOS ANGELES - For more than a week, Californians endured a heat wave that smashed records, pushed the state’s energy grid to the brink and parched the landscape, creating conditions ripe for catastrophic wildfires.
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