Thanks primarily to vegetation left dry by the years- long drought, combined with the usual round of Santa Ana winds, Southern California will be facing “above normal large-fire potential” this month and lingering through fall, an Angeles National Forest official warned Tuesday.
“We’re expecting (a) near-normal number of offshore wind events — that’s the Southern California Santa Ana winds — that affects most of Southern California south of Kern County, and possibly a greater frequency of events in November and December,” said Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia.
“The outlook also calls for above-normal temperatures, and below-normal precipitation for this time of year, (with) above normal large-fire potential, slowly returning to normal,” Garcia said.
A major — and ongoing — problem has been vegetation that has dried out because of the drought, Garcia said.
Garcia made his remarks in a conference call with reporters, accompanied by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, who discussed the challenges faced by administrators funding wildfire firefighting efforts nationwide.
“This (past) year, the cost of fighting wildfires exceeded the funding level Congress provided to the forest service for fighting wildfires,” Donovan said. “This is something we’ve seen in six of the past 10 years.
“The fundamental reality we’re seeing is that rapidly increasing costs of fire suppression are outpacing increases in the overall budget of the forest service,” Donovan said.
“This means that the forest service must dedicate a larger and larger percentage of its budget to firefighting — and the cost of other critical land- management programs, including … the very programs that help reduce the risk of catastrophic fires and the degree of fire destruction to property …,” Donovan said.
Their comments came as Southern California braced for fire weather this week.
According to the National Weather Service, “critical fire weather conditions” are likely across parts of the Southland from Wednesday through Saturday, and a “fire weather watch” will be in effect for the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains.
“The combination of gusty north to northeast winds, very low humidity and warm temperatures will potentially bring critical fire weather conditions,” according to the NWS.
“This in combination with the very dry fuels could cause rapid fire spread along with extreme fire danger and/or fire behavior,” the NWS reported.
—City News Service