![]() Many Diablo wind events possess many of the characteristics of a terrain-induced downslope windstorm and are generally strongest at night (e.g., Smith et al. Over central/Northern California, such strong, dry offshore winds are known as “Diablo” or north winds and are close cousins to the Santa Ana winds of Southern California all of these winds are most frequent during the fall and early winter when high pressure builds inland over the Intermountain West, producing an offshore pressure gradient and dry low-level flow with an easterly component. ![]() Strong winds played an essential role in both the initiation and maintenance of the Wine Country wildfires, with gusts reaching 60–95 kt (where 1 kt ≈ 0.5144 m s –1) near and downstream of the crests of the regional terrain. As will be described later, the interaction of the large-scale flow field with terrain was a critical element of the October 2017 wildfire event. A lower area, known as the Burney Gap, is found over Northern California between the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada and the southern Cascade Mountains. To the east of the main wildfire area of 8–9 October 2017 lies the Central Valley of California and farther east there is the Sierra Nevada, on whose western slopes additional fires were initiated that day. 2) show that the region north of San Francisco is characterized by a collection of ridges generally oriented northwest to southeast, with the crests rising to approximately 800 m (2,500 ft) over the southern portion of the domain and roughly 1,100 m (3,600 ft) at the latitude of the most northern fires. 2, with the fire swaths generally extending from the upper slopes of the regional terrain toward lower elevations to the southwest. The areas of the major fires are shown in Fig. Other major blazes included the Nun’s fire (54,382 acres), which spread east and north of the city of Sonoma, and the Atlas fire (51,624 acres), north of the city of Napa. The Tubbs fire, the most destructive single fire in California history in terms of lost structures, descended the hills northeast of Santa Rosa, burning 36,807 acres and killing 22 individuals. Forty-four people lost their lives, several hundred were hospitalized, and millions of people were exposed to smoke from the fires. Known as the “Wine Country” wildfires due to the extensive vineyards and wineries of the region, the fires were the most destructive 1 in California history: destroying roughly 9,000 structures damaging 21,000 buildings ( and resulting in over $10 billion (U.S. Problems with a vulnerable power system, urbanization, and other nonmeteorological issues contributed to the most damaging wildfire in California history.ĭuring the evening of Sunday, 8 October 2017, a series of catastrophic wildfires began over the terrain of north-central California and spread rapidly across approximately 250,000 acres, including the region near the towns of Santa Rosa and Napa. The Northern California wildfires of October 2017 were associated with a strong, well-forecast, downslope wind event. ![]() The potential for mitigating or preventing such destructive wildfires using skillful weather prediction is examined, as well as the possible role of global warming. It appears that a vulnerable power system, urbanization of fire-prone areas, flammable invasive species, and poor communication of dangerous conditions contributed to this catastrophic event. Importantly, operational mesoscale forecast models provided excellent forecasts of the high winds several days in advance. High-resolution meteorological modeling realistically simulated the strong winds associated with this event. The climatological conditions preceding the fires are reviewed, including near-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures during the summer, as well as much above-normal precipitation the previous winter, which led to abundant dry grass that provided fuel for the wind-driven fires. This paper describes the synoptic and mesoscale conditions that were associated with the wildfires, with strong, easterly “Diablo” winds playing a central role in both initiating and supporting the fires. These “Wine Country” wildfires were the most destructive in California history, with 44 deaths the loss of 9,000 buildings damage to approximately 21,000 structures $10 billion of insured losses and substantially greater total economic loss. A series of large wildfires began over the terrain north of San Francisco, California, during the evening of 8 October 2017 and spread across nearly 250,000 acres, including areas near the towns of Santa Rosa and Napa.
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