The Storm Prediction Center's fire weather outlook for Sunday, August 23, 2020.
NOAA/Storm Prediction CenterNorthern California could experience “critical” fire weather conditions on Sunday night as scattered dry thunderstorms move into the region. The chance for lightning and gusty winds could make a bad situation worse as firefighting crews and equipment are already stretched thin by multiple ongoing fires across the state.
The Storm Prediction Center’s forecast on Sunday afternoon called for dry thunderstorms to reach fire-affected areas of northern California around or after sunset on Sunday.
A dry thunderstorm occurs when rain evaporates before it reaches the ground, allowing lightning to strike dry vegetation without enough precipitation to slow or stop the spread of the resulting fires.
There’s enough instability, lift, and moisture aloft to allow scattered thunderstorms to develop and overspread the area, but the air near the surface is dry enough that most rain will evaporate before it reaches the ground. In addition to the potential for dry lightning, forecasters warn that gusty winds produced by the thunderstorms could lead to erratic fire behavior and serve to spread existing fires.
Dry lightning strikes are a major source of wildfires in the western United States, including several of the largest wildfires burning in California today.
Ongoing wildfires across California have burned more than a million acres in recent weeks. Three of the fires—known as “lightning complexes,” as they’re the result of many individual lightning-induced fires—north and south of the Bay Area have consumed more than three-quarters of a million acres in the last week and they’re minimally contained.
The LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex are now, respectively, the second- and third-largest wildfires on record in California. The LNU Complex is only 17 percent contained, while the SCU Complex reported just 10 percent containment on Sunday. The two fires have each consumed about 340,000 acres of land so far, claiming four lives and destroying at least 1,000 residential and commercial structures.
The Storm Prediction Center’s latest forecast indicates that more isolated dry thunderstorms are possible across northern California and much of the mountain West during the afternoon and evening hours on Monday.
The Link LonkAugust 24, 2020 at 05:16AM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dennismersereau/2020/08/23/critical-fire-risk-in-northern-california-sunday-ahead-of-possible-dry-lightning/
‘Critical’ Fire Risk In Northern California Sunday Ahead Of Possible Dry Lightning - Forbes
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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