The heat wave in the western United States worsened Sunday as did the wildfire situation, and the situation looks absolutely horrible for the next few days.
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| This wildfire, one of many burning in California, was started by a gender reveal party. Sigh. |
Meanwhile, heat and smoke-cloaked Colorado continued to prepare for a winter storm.
The above two sentences, put together, were definitely not on my bingo card for this year. But it is the hideous year 2020, so you know whatever happens will be both strange and bad.
California is burning. The Associated Press, via the Weather Channel, reports that 12,500 firefighters were battling 22 major fires in the state. Given the weather forecasts, most of these fires will spread, and new ones will start in the coming days.
More than 200 people trapped Saturday and Sunday by fire near a California lake were rescued, but 20 of them were injured. Some severely.
California has already broken its record for most acreage burned by wildfires in a single year. The fires continue to burn, and it really is just near the start of California's wildfire season.
Some of the worst fire conditions today and tomorrow are where you'd least expect it - namely the area around Portland, Oregon and the coastal mountain ranges in northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington.
This area, notoriously soggy in the winter, is bone dry. Today and tomorrow, strong east winds from the dry interior will lower the humidity to below 15 percent. Winds will gust to 60 mph in these mountains, and 45 mph in the Portland and Vancouver, Washington areas.
A meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Portland, Oregon said on Facebook this is the most dangerous fire weather situation in this region in at least 50 years.
This is the kind of fire weather that can sent walls of flames into populated areas, like what happened in Santa Rosa, California back in 2017.
Stupidity also is a factor in this, as it always seems to be. One large wildfire in San Bernardino County, California was started by one of those colored pink or blue smoke contraptions at a gender reveal party.
Amid all this, heat records are falling like crazy. Temperatures reached 121 degrees in Woodland Hills, California, the hottest temperature on record for anywhere in Los Angeles County. Chino, California also hit 121 degrees, the hottest temperature on record for anywhere west of the mountains in southern California, says the National Weather Service office in San Diego.
It was 108 degrees Sunday in La Junta, Colorado, the hottest September temperature on record in that state. In Boulder, it got up to 99 degrees Sunday, the hottest for so late in the season. It might have gotten even warmer, but a plume of wildfire smoke blotted out the sun during the afternoon.
In Colorado, it's hot, the air is choking with wildfire smoke and a winter storm is bearing down on that region. Good lord! Some higher elevations could get a foot of snow once the cold air arrives. At lower elevations, Coloradans are bracing for power outages as wet snow is expected to collapse leafed out trees into power lines.
It's going to be a mess out west all week.
VERMONT WEATHER ISSUES
As we've been noting, things aren't nearly as wild here in Vermont as they are out west, but there are some weather issues to worry about.
In the Champlain Valley, winds were already cranking hard by 7:30 this morning, at least at my place in St. Albans, Vermont. (It had been relatively calm an hour earlier).
The Champlain Valley is experiencing a wind storm today, even though there's no actual storm around.
A strong air pressure gradient between a cold front to the west and strong high pressure to the east is causing the wind. It will be windy statewide today, but channeling effects between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains will make the Champlain Valley especially gusty.
As noted yesterday, do NOT take your boat out onto the lake today. The winds, and waves that could reach up to eight feet high are making Lake Champlain far too dangerous.
Low humidity and today's gusty winds will actually create a relatively high fire danger in Vermont today, especially in the Champlain Valley and southern Vermont. Keep a close watch on those camp fires and barbecues, and postpone setting that brush pile alight for another day.
Showers were trying to move in from the west this morning, but they will likely mostly or completely dry up before reaching Vermont. We'll just be left with a bunch of clouds.
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