LA Fires
 

I've been watching the news and seeing footage of the devastating fires in California.
So much destruction and heartache!

I hope any of our forum members living near the fire zone are safe.

Same here. Prayers for everyone's safety and no lost plants. Let us know how you are.

Where I live is fine... to the south of the disaster (not even much smoke, at least for the moment, a change of wind direction could change that) I'm very worried abougt some friends in the Pacific Palisades/Malibu Orchid Society. I have been in contact with one, who had to evacuate at midnight and was staying with friends, she had not yet been able to make contact with other club members. Definitely an evolving situation, a day (or hour) at a time. A very bad situation - humidity from the teens down to single digits, hurricane-force winds, and we have not had any significant rain since about last April. (The major storms of a couple of weeks ago all went significantly north, Los Angeles and points south, absolutely nothing)

Southern California gets periods of extremely hot, dry and strong winds, called Santa Ana winds, from the East each winter. Most years it's bad. Fires spread too rapidly to be fought much on the ground until the wind stops. Often the wind is too strong for water carrying helicopters and airplanes to fly. This year is especially bad because there has been none of the usual Winter rain. When fires form they are blown downwind until they run out of fuel, or to the ocean.

Because of the Mediterranean climate summers are long, hot and dry, usually with no rain between March and October. July to August are also fire season, but the wind is usually not that bad.