Heat + Drought = Fire

My first real close experience with a wildfire (since the days of seeing Pinelands fires in NJ from 30 miles away as a kid) occurred today. A 250 acre fire broke out in Angeles National Forest this afternoon, about 15 miles to my east, north of Azusa.


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I happened to wake up from my daily nap to the hum of news helicopters passing by. I looked out my window, and I saw this interesting scene:


It's nice to know I live in the middle of a city, so I'm not at risk here, but it certainly can be slightly frightening.

Downtown LA hit 89 degrees this afternoon. Burbank hit 94, Riverside 99, Ontario 99. It's heating up, and what's scary is that this is only the beginning. Riverside and Ontario may top out over 105 by Thursday or Friday. Burbank should easily hit 100, and Los Angeles could hit 95 or better. By far, the hottest weather of the season. We're certainly not alone. Phoenix and Vegas are progged to hit 105-110 easily. Phoenix should top out over 110. We may not get much relief out here until Sunday, if not Monday. Going to be a rough couple of days.

The only saving grace is a lack of wind. This isn't a Santa Ana event, so we're not dealing with those fire whipping winds every day. But, with relative humidity plummeting and temperatures soaring, fire risk will remain extremely high. Hopefully we can escape this without many big problems.