- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Unfortunately, Santa Ana winds are as reliable a part of Southern California's autumn as colorful fall foliage is for New England. Santa Anas are strong, extremely dry offshore winds often associated with the warmest weather and fiercest fires in the southern part of the state; 2008 is no exception.
According to the Associated Press, powerful winds stoked three major wildfires this morning after destroying dozens of homes, forcing thousands to flee and killing two people.
An article in the
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As firefighters begin to get the upper hand on the Southern California wildfires, the co-director of the UC Berkeley fire center had the opportunity to give Los Angeles Times readers a glimpse of research underway on this perennial threat.
Max Moritz and his colleague Alex Hall of UCLA are mapping Santa Ana wind corridors in Southern California. The Santa Anas blow when desert winds push down canyons over passes and low mountains, warming and gaining speed along the way, according to the Times article. Fires tend to rage along specific corridors. A corridor along the Santa Susanna Pass, for example,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The introduction to an in-depth story on Santa Ana winds in Los Angeles Magazine says the predictable and powerful hot desert winds that annually fan Southern California fires "push tempers toward violence." That comment may have been prompted by reporter David Gardetta's telephone interview for the article with the co-director of the UC Berkeley Fire Center, Max Moritz.
As quoted in the story, Moritz strongly lamented the fact that fire research has largely focused on fuel instead of wind.
“This is the source of my frustration and the story of my latest crusade. I’ve been yelling for years that winds like the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
"Southern California is burning . . . . I've never seen anything like this!" begins a note written yesterday by Myriam Grajales-Hall, the manager of UC ANR's News and Information Outreach in Spanish program, which is headquartered at UC Riverside.
"My family and I went to downtown LA yesterday, and by the afternoon, the sky was dark, the smell of smoke pervaded the city and ashes were falling everywhere. As we were coming back home in the evening, we could see flames on the hill . . . as far as the eye could see . . . . An eerie sight, indeed."
ANR Governmental and External Relations is getting wildfire information out to the public in an
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The headline above, also the opening lyrics of a popular 1970s folk song, is a message that is again being driven home in the wake of this week's Southern California fires. A Los Angeles Times article published today focused on the dangers of flying embers to homes even some distance away from the fire frontline.
The story opened with a heart-wrenching account of Yorba Linda homeowners who thought they had done everything right: barrel tile roof, boxed eaves, brick and stucco siding, well-maintained landscape and clean rain gutters. Their home was destroyed.
"There will be a weak link in the house that is destroyed,"...
