![]() ![]() Of substantial importance, the route between the fire initiation point near Camp Fire Road (noted in Fig. Much of the region around Paradise had experienced large fires during the previous decades ( Fig. 3 Cal Fire also found a secondary fire ignition from a failing power transmission line near Concow, California, with the secondary blaze subsumed by the primary fire that started near Pulga. California’s Cal Fire Agency, after an extensive investigation, concluded that the fire was initiated by the structural failure of a component on a 100-yr-old PG&E high-tension tower, with strong winds a probable contributor to that failure. The Camp Creek Road fire initiation point (near the Camp Creek–Pulga Road intersection) lies within the Feather River Canyon, which extends eastward to the crest of the Sierra Nevada and provides a conduit for strong easterly canyon winds that are sometimes called “Jarbo Gap Winds” 2 ( Fig. The fire burned over approximately 30,000 acres the next day and then slowly increased in extent, mainly by expanding on its northern and southern flanks. The fire rapidly moved through and south of Paradise, burning across approximately 70,000 acres during the first 24 h. The fire then expanded rapidly to the west and southwest, reaching the northeast outskirts of Paradise around 1600 UTC (0800 PST). dollars in total loss, making it the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history ( Cal Fire 2019).Īccording to California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection ( Cal Fire 2019), the primary initiation point of the Camp Fire was under Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) power lines near Camp Creek Road in Pulga (the location is indicated on Fig. Over the next 5 days, the fire burned 153,000 acres (61,917 ha), destroyed nearly 20,000 structures, killed 85 people, and resulted in approximately 17 billion U.S. Paradise is located between roughly 457 and 610 m (1,500 and 2,000 ft) above mean sea level (MSL) within the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the crest of which rises to approximately 1,980 m (6,500 ft) roughly 40 km to the northeast of the city. On 8 November 2018, strong northeasterly winds interacting with a failing electrical transmission tower ignited a wildfire under power lines to the northeast of Paradise, California. Keywords: Forest fires Katabatic winds Wildfires Mesoscale forecasting Numerical weather prediction/forecasting Forest fires The origin of the fire can be traced to strong winds interacting with a failing electrical transmission infrastructure, with highly flammable surface fuels fostering rapid fire movement between the ignition source and Paradise. ![]() ![]() Drier-than-normal conditions prevailed during the ∼3 days preceding and during the event, as a result of downslope winds. The highest winds were not climatologically exceptional, and low-level temperatures were cooler than normal over and to the east of the Sierra Nevada, near normal over the western slopes, and warmer than normal over coastal California. The maximum wind gusts along the western Sierra Nevada slopes ranged from 10–20 kt (1 kt ≈ 0.51 m s −1) at sheltered locations to 50–60 kt at exposed sites on the mid- to upper slopes of the barrier. ![]() Similar to recent central/Northern California wildfires associated with downslope winds, the synoptic pattern was characterized by building sea level pressure over the Intermountain West and a trough along the coastal zone, with both the synoptic evolution and low-level winds skillfully forecast by operational models. The downslope winds peaked around sunrise, with strong winds pushing the fire rapidly toward Paradise, California. The Camp Fire event was associated with dry, northeasterly winds that descended the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of Northern California during the early morning hours of 8 November 2018. ![]()
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