In Southern California, the risks are strikingly different - the same tropical system could bring moisture with it and mean heavy rainfall, triggering flash floods. These fire risks center on Central and Northern California, due to a dry air mass hovering over the region, according to Swain.
“That would be kind of a nightmare in the context of the unprecedented heat wave we’re currently experiencing, and just before autumn wind season.” “The concern would be dry or nearly dry lightning,” Swain said. But tropical moisture from this system could mean Central and Northern California see thunderstorms this weekend and until early next week. It’s expected to weaken by the end of the week. Hurricane Kay is currently spinning off the coast of the Baja California peninsula. Lightning illuminates the sky over the eastern span of the Bay Bridge as a storm passed through the area in 2020. “The fuels before the heat wave were already at critical levels, at historic lows, then you throw this on top of it,” said Rich Sampson, a Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit forester. The triple-digit heat plaguing the Bay Area and Central Coast essentially evaporates what little water was left. “What this extreme heat is doing is kiln-drying the vegetation, pre-baking it, if you will, and making things that much more flammable,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, speaking Tuesday during a Twitter Spaces event.Ĭome autumn in Northern California, fuels are already stripped of moisture, having gone months without measurable rainfall. There is also potential that remnants of Hurricane Kay could creep up the California coast this weekend, bringing thunder and lightning, without rain - increasing the odds of dangerous lightning-strike fires sparking. But now historic high temperatures are drying out already parched grasses, shrubs and trees that are ripe to burn, firefighters and scientists say. The larger Bay Area and Central Coast regions have continued to be spared from such extreme wildfires this season. Read more: California fires live updates.
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