Random Ramblings: Aerial Wildland Firefighting

I have blogged about aerial wildland firefighting since 2009. I am not a firefighter and am not a pilot, just an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here. Join me here as I blog on the aircraft and the pilots who fight wildland fires from the air in support of crews on the ground. I also blog on concerns affecting fire crews on the ground as well as other aviation and meteorology issues. Learn what it takes to do jobs that are staffed by the best of the best.

Wednesday, October 09, 2019

2019 wildfire season: Red Flag Warnings and Santa Ana Winds

There are others such as Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation as well as Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day who do a great job on reporting current news about wildfires and related concerns. Today, I offer this post on today's red flag warnings in California and the Southwest as well as forecasted high winds in California, not so much to report but to let all wildland firefighters, aerial wildland firefighters, emergency management officials, and the personnel in the affected National Weather Forecast Office that I am thinking of you. All of you want your residents to be safe. For those on the ground or in the air and your support people, stay safe.

Today, October 9, 2019 there are red flag warnings in portions of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.

Red Flag Warnings for October 9, 2019
obtained from https://www.weather.gov/fire/ on October 9, 2019

To complicate matters in California, high wind warnings, some of which may be santa ana winds are expected in California from today through Friday depending on location. This will result in critical fire weather conditions. I have taken graphics from four National Weather Service Forecast Offices in affected areas of California to illustrate the high to extreme fire danger through Friday. I will share those at the end of this post.

In a somewhat controversial move, utilities in some areas of California under red flag and high wind warnings have cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers in a move to minimize wildfires, see this LA Times article (paywall) and Bill Gabbert's Oct 9th article on Wildfire Today for more information.

All I can say at this point is that time will tell what happens.

Here are the promised graphics from National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office who have issued red flag and high wind warnings. Each Weather Forecast Office has Facebook and Twitter accounts which you should be able to find by following the link for each NWS Weather Forecast Office.