The recent extreme heat and dry conditions across Southern California certainly helped fuel the three major wildfires burning in Southern California, but how did they explode so quickly ?
Two things: Gusty winds and onshore flow.
“We had the onshore flow strengthen, the winds coming from the ocean, and that brought about the rapid spread of fire for Southern California,” explained National Weather Service Meteorologist Dr. Ariel Cohen.
The onshore flow provided the last needed element for the fires to grow in size.
“What that does is it pushes the fire in there, and as that fire gets bigger and grows, the fire out ahead of it, as it’s consuming fuel and burning vegetation, it starts drawing wind in from the other side,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jed Gaines.
The Bridge Fire grew to more than 49,000 acres Wednesday, and the windy conditions were nearly impossible to ignore for some nearby residents.
“The winds … I don’t know if it’s because of the fire but the winds … it was like real big gusts of winds,” said Wrightwood resident Christine Johnson. “It was scary. When you went on the other side of town, it wasn’t like that.”