The Dexes / Wildfire (Storm Events) / 908492
Eventdex · Wildfire (Storm Events)
SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS
908492
The record
Everything the slot carries, as measured. Series arrays are drawn above and listed here in full.
| Event typeevent_type | Wildfire |
|---|---|
| NOAA NCEI event IDncei_event_id | 908,492 |
| Episode IDepisode_id | 150,658 |
| Begin UTCbegin_utc | 2020-08-16T13:41:00+00:00 |
| End UTCend_utc | 2020-09-01T07:59:00+00:00 |
| Statestate | CALIFORNIA |
| County/zone typecz_type | Z |
| County/zone namecz_name | SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS |
| Deaths directdeaths_direct | 1 |
| Deaths indirectdeaths_indirect | 0 |
| Injuries directinjuries_direct | 3 |
| Injuries indirectinjuries_indirect | 0 |
| Weather forecast office sourcewfo_source | Fire Department/Rescue |
| Episode narrativeepisode_narrative | A prolonged and oppressive heat wave swept the Central Coast and Bay Area for almost a week from August 14th to August 19th with widespread record breaking temperatures observed across the region. This was caused by a strong high pressure system over the Desert Southwest that expanded westward into California. This dome of heat brought hot temperatures to the area for several days. Multiple days of triple digit afternoon highs were recorded inland with some coastal locations even reaching the mid 90s. Several days of hot and dry weather further dried fuels over the area increasing fire danger. During this event, a surge of monsoonal and tropical moisture from a former Tropical Storm advected northward with sufficient instability to generate multiple high based and dry thunderstorms that produced several thousand lightning strikes over the Greater Bay Area. Many locations saw wind gusts of 40-50 mph with isolated areas seeing gusts of 60-75 mph. This prompted the San Francisco Bay Area forecast office to issue a rare severe thunderstorm warning. These lightning strikes in combination with gusty and erratic outflow winds sparked hundreds of wildfires across the state of California. Several smaller fires combined to form complexes some of which are now among the largest wildfires in state history. Most of which were still actively burning at the end of August. Hundreds of thousands of acres have been burned with several hundred structures destroyed as well as a handful of deaths and injuries. Tens of thousands of residents were also forced to evacuate. Additionally, all of these wildfires burning simultaneously across the state gave the Bay Area the worst air quality in the world at one point. |
| Event narrativeevent_narrative | On the morning of the 16th, lightning started multiple wildfires in Santa Cruz/San Mateo Counties that combined to form the CZU Lightning Complex https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/czu-lightning-complex-including-warnella-fire/. At the end of August the fire had burned 84,640 acres, destroyed over 1100 buildings some of which were residential structures, injured three people (first responders), and killed another. Nearly 100,000 people were forced to evacuate. Historic Big Basin State Park sustained heavy damage from the fire burning down the parks headquarters. The fire was still actively burning at the end of August. |
| Yearyear | 2,020 |
Provenance
This slot's source list is not carried on the manifest row; open the dossier below.
Storage: spine