Thoughts for those in LA

[TSR2]

Just wanted to say I hope any members or viewers in LA and the surrounding areas are all safe from the fires.

[Airspeed]

My thoughts exactly, Ben.
I just logged in to make a post, and found yours.
It's their winter, which really makes it scary.

[Tako_Kichi]

While the fires are bad they will not freeze to death as LA is in Southern California and relatively warm and dry even in winter. It is the warmth and dryness that is part of the problem as the underlying brush and grassland is tinder dry and the smallest spark and puff of wind can start a new fire almost immediately. I just checked today's WX for LA and they can expect high temps of 22°C/71°F with winds in the 3 KPH/2MPH range.

As a comparison my weather this morning is -13°C/9°F with a 'feels like' temperature of -21°C/-6°F when you factor in the wind which is 17 KPH gusting 26 KPH which converts to 11 MPH gusting to 16 MPH. We are into the second week of continuous sub-zero temperatures and we do not expect temperatures to get above freezing here for at least another 10-14 days! The January Freeze is definitely on and I am in the 'warm' part of Canada!

'Winter' is a relative term when talking about an area as huge as North America as it extends from the polar wastelands in the North to the deserts and sub-tropical areas in the US southern border states!

[Nigel H-J]

I have been shocked at the way this fire has spread, fanned by winds of up to 80mph. I cannot even comprehend the extreme scale this has affected residents of Los Angeles.

Just hope that those who are affected are given all the help they need to rebuild their homes and lives when it is all over.

Nigel.

[Tako_Kichi]

A wild fire can create it's own wind systems caused by the air rushing in to replace the oxygen consumed by the fire itself or by the rising hot air being replaced by cooler surface winds. It can even produce 'fire-nados' which are columns of spinning air much like a tornado but with a heart of fire, literally!

A wild fire is a scary beast that will go where it wants and destroy anything flammable in it's path until it (a) it runs out of fuel (either by moving into a non-flammable area or a 'clear path' cut to stop the spread) or (b) the fire core is extinguished by water or retardant either from rain storms or water-bombers.

My wife and I were volunteer severe weather spotters for Environment Canada for many years and she was also a 911 fire dispatcher too so wild fires and their causes and effects were part of yearly training sessions that we both attended.

[blanston12]

i live in the northern part of California near San Francisco but I have lived in Orange County which is south of LA county and my mom and sister still live there. Fortunately for them LA County is huge and the fires are more in the north, I talked to my mom yesterday and the winds there are quite mild but the air quality is not great.

Most of the time the winds blow in from the Ocean with a cooler moist air, but every year they get what they call the 'Santa Ana Winds', warmer dry winds that come from the interior and blow out to sea. Wild fires are always more of a risk at those times and socal is again experiencing a mild drought this year and these 80mph winds were predicted and announced a few days before all this happened.

These huge wildfires are becoming more frequent and they are always more of a risk when we get these off shore winds. Its getting really hard to get homeowners insurance as a result, some pretty posh areas of LA are being hit and its only going to make it worse.

[Airspeed]

i live in the northern part of California near San Francisco but I have lived in Orange County which is south of LA county and my mom and sister still live ......

Glad that you and your family have avoided the troubles, Joe.
Our Grampians fire finished up covering 76,000 hectares, but that is National Park; there are as many people in California as in all of Australia, so the human impact is much more severe.
Stay safe.

[Airspeed]

....
As a comparison my weather this morning is -13°C/9°F with a 'feels like' temperature of -21°C/-6°F when you factor in the wind which is 17 KPH gusting 26 KPH which converts to 11 MPH gusting to 16 MPH. We are into the second week of continuous sub-zero temperatures and we do not expect temperatures to get above freezing here for at least another 10-14 days! The January Freeze is definitely on and I am in the 'warm' part of Canada!
......

That would be tough to live with, Larry.
OK, I don't relish +40C, and the +50 that they get up North would stop me in my tracks, but -13C sounds very unpleasant.
According to the book I'm reading, the Blenheim turret gunners experienced oxygen masks freezing to their faces, with consequent skin damage.

[Tako_Kichi]

Skin freeze is very unpleasant. I once got a very mild case of frostbite in my fingers after removing my gloves during a snow squall to adjust the bridles of a large power-kite I was helping to design/develop. I only had my gloves off for about 5 minutes but that was enough to freeze the top layer of skin. I didn't notice the damage until I got back inside and started to warm up and then the pain started! I had an incredible burning sensation that traveled from my fingertips through my hands and up my forearms that came in waves. The severe pain lasted for at least 10-15 minutes before it finally eased off and it was sore to the touch for hours afterwards! It was extremely unpleasant and I fully appreciate what climbers and others who get severe frostbite must have to go through as mine was an experience I don't want to repeat and it was only a mild case!

This morning we got up to 3+ inches (75mm) of fresh snow on the ground so my first job was to shovel off the 50ft (15m) handicap ramp on the front of the house and make a path around the car so my wife could clean her windows and take our daughter to work! Trust me, shoveling snow at -7°C at 7 am when you are almost 68 years old and disabled is no joke! At least it was the light, powdery, variety and not the heavy wet stuff that breaks your back! All this was before I even took a sip of my first coffee of the day!

[Airspeed]

..... All this was before I even took a sip of my first coffee of the day!

You DID something before coffee