A tropical storm brought high humidity, rain, and the possibility of floods to parts of Southern California on Friday, as well as the promise of lower temperatures following a 10-day heat wave that nearly overwhelmed the state’s electricity grid.
Firefighters had feared that winds exceeding 100 mph (161 kph) could spread the large Fairview Fire blazing approximately 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, but workers have made tremendous progress and predict they will have full containment by Monday. More than 10,000 homes and other structures were still at risk, and evacuation orders remained in effect.
Hurricane Kay made landfall in Bahia Asuncion in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur on Thursday, but by the time it reached Southern California, it had deteriorated to a tropical storm. On Cuyamaca Peak in San Diego County, winds hit 109 miles per hour (175 kilometers per hour), according to the National Weather Service.
This week, temperatures in many sections of California soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), exacerbated by the tropical conditions. Even places with a reputation for a mild climate, such as San Diego, cooked in the heat.
Charles Jenkins cleaned the growing puddles off the tarps of his temporary house as a steady rain battered downtown San Diego by the late morning on Friday.
“The heat was unbearable, but this feels fantastic for the time being,” Jenkins added. “I just hope the water doesn’t rise too high, but I’m prepared to rough it; I have pallets I can use to keep out the rain.”
Close around 1 p.m. A Navy-contracted twin-engine aircraft carrying two civilian pilots skidded off the end of a runway after landing at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado and parking on a stretch of sand while the rain continued. Kevin Dixon, a spokesman for Naval Base Coronado, said the plane’s nose was damaged, but the pilots were able to depart on their own and were brought to a hospital for observation.
Even while rainfall in Southern California was typically light on Friday, there was a potential of isolated thunderstorms and torrential downpours on Saturday. Officials in coastal cities put warning signs in low-lying areas and made sandbags available to the public in anticipation of probable floods.
California and other Western states have already seen one of the hottest and longest heat waves on record in September. This week, about 54 million people in the region were under heat warnings and advisories as temperature records were broken in numerous regions.
Sacramento, the state capital of California, reached 116 degrees (46.7 C) on Tuesday, smashing a 97-year-old record. Wednesday’s 107-degree temperature in Salt Lake City tied the city’s record high (41.6 C).
Tuesday, as air conditioners whirred in the oppressive heat, California broke a record for electricity use, and regulators nearly introduced rolling blackouts as the electrical grid capacity reached its limit.
According to scientists, climate change has caused the West to get warmer and drier over the past three decades, and will continue to make the weather more intense and wildfires more catastrophic. The last five years have seen the largest and most devastating flames in California’s history.
While firefighters made headway against the Fairview Fire, the fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the foothills east of Sacramento grew by at least 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) on Friday, threatening 3,600 houses in Placer and El Dorado counties and blanketing the region with smoke.
Flames crossed the American River, igniting houses in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moved closer to the towns of Foresthill and Georgetown, with populations of approximately 1,500 and 3,000 people, respectively. More than 5,700 individuals have been evacuated, according to lieutenant Josh Barnhart of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
David Hance slept on the porch of his mother’s Foresthill mobile home on Wednesday morning when he awoke to a bright red sky and was asked to flee.
“It was absolutely horrifying because they kept saying, ‘Oh yeah, it’s getting closer,’” he recalled. “The scene resembled a sunset in the middle of the night.”
Hance went to Auburn, where he located his mother, Linda Hance, who stated that the greatest source of anxiety is wondering, “Is my house still standing?”
Organizers of the Tour de Tahoe canceled Sunday’s annual 72-mile (115-km) bicycle ride around Lake Tahoe due to heavy smoke from a fire more than 50 miles (80 km) away. They noted that cycling is a “heavy cardio activity that does not pair well with terrible air quality.” Last year’s ride was also canceled due to smoke from a large fire south of Tahoe.
The cause of the Mosquito Fire remains under investigation. Tuesday’s fire incident coincided with undefined “electrical activity,” according to Pacific Gas & Electric.
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