LA FIRESTORM: What To Say To Relatives Back East
Like many Angelinos enduring the current Fires in Los Angeles, I’ve had many relatives from back east writing and calling to make sure I’m well, but also wanting some information about the fires and how/why they happen to us. Here’s what I wrote to them — use these paragraphs for comparison; your actual message back east may differ!
Hi ya’ll,
First of all, we’re all ok and mostly well out of the fire areas, so that’s good. But the fires still rage in the affected areas. We’ve appreciated the texts and emails checking on us, and we know it must seem like we’re in the “middle” of it.
Los Angeles is a big place; LA County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island by hundreds of square miles, so there’s “room” for the multiple fires to be “away” from other population centers like Santa Clarita (fill in where you live). Still, whether through people we know being affected, or freeway and road closures, or the smoke-filled air in some areas, the fire disaster is affecting all of us in some manner.
The Hurst fire which is nearest to Santa Clarita is problematic for me, not in terms of fire danger but just because the fire is right in the mountain pass that leads from Los Angeles to Santa Clarita. It’s pretty narrow so that’s led to closures and difficulty driving. Fires in Calabasas and Hidden Hills are closer to my son in Thousand Oaks, again just complicating driving, not actual fire danger.
For those who aren’t familiar with our region’s “Santa Ana Winds,” they are a regional weather phenomenon that happens, oddly, often in winter and dries the air out and rearranges lawn furniture but is generally benign. But when you add a spark, whether from a power pole (likely in current situation) or other source, and it can result in a literal firestorm where large fires can actually create their own weather.
Here’s generally how it happens, as any weatherologist in your family well knows (we’ve all got one, right?) — a Low Pressure area rotates counterclockwise while a High Pressure area is the opposite, rotating clockwise (see below). So far, this just sounds like nerdy weather info affecting offshore and onshore air flow. But when you get a High above our region and a Low below, it creates a literal wind tunnel that transports hot dry air from as far away as Arizona at high speed directly into SoCal. It can be a mild elevation of wintry temps, the lovely “dry heat” that brings Snow Birds here to escape northern snows — or it can be a horrendous wind torrent lasting for days…
That’s what we’re having. Add a spark of fire and it can become a massive holocaust with losses currently of over 4000 homes, 5 dead and over $50 billion of damage. I’ll stay away from the political controversies of poor forest management, protection of an endangered fish in the Sacramento Delta leading to water shortages further south, no new reservoirs built in the last 50 years, etc., etc. Cleary something has to change in the way we prepare for these foreseeable tragedies.
I hope this context helps to gain an understanding of how we’re still ok, but the region is not. It’s a different kind of nightmare than eastern seaboard hurricanes, but still frightening and perplexing and keeps all of us feeling pretty humble when nature seems to turn against us.
I almost feel guilty when the only impact on me is traffic and tracking down my trash cans and lawn furniture. I’ll maybe be dropping off some water at one of the donation stations all around LA. Oh, and writing to you guys who may be worried about us. Hope this helps, or at least doesn’t worry you further.
Love from the Front
(Now, I’ve gotta head out 2 hours early for my chiropractor appointment which is a half-mile away.)
