California had waited for the snow like the oracle. At the end of December, after months of waiting, spectacular snowfall fell on the peaks of the mountain range, the Sierra Nevada. Expected, these precipitations allow the piling up of a layer of snow which disintegrates and melts when the first summer heat arrives. This “snowpack”, as the experts present it, regulates the effects of drought in a region where it hardly ever rains as soon as spring arrives. Moisture being obtained in autumn and winter.
Faced with exhausting temperatures, the state’s vegetation goes “on standby” in early spring to dry out until October. The snowfall at the end of 2021, reaching historic levels since it had not snowed so much for almost fifty years, raised hopes among authorities and experts to stop the cycle of chronic drought. that is ravaging California. The temperatures recorded in recent days now rather report an opposite scenario and an abrasive situation.
Firefighters and deputies mobilized
While the season would mainly call for putting on a jacket and mittens, in Los Angeles, temperatures exceeded 30 degrees on Saturday. In Salinas, on the edge of the Central Valley, too. An absolute record at this stage of the year. Thursday became the hottest February day since 1986 in San Francisco. On average, temperatures are 10ºC higher than seasonal norms. This upsurge in extreme heat is the cause of several outbreaks of fire.
In coastal Orange County, where the Emerald Fire broke out around 4 a.m. Thursday, deputies knocked on doors and called from patrol car speakers, trying to wake sleeping residents . They urged them to leave. Aided by water bombers, more than 200 firefighters were on deck to try to extinguish the flames. The fire covered nearly 60 hectares before being contained (in twelve hours) without having reached the dwellings.
A few kilometers away, while the firefighters continued their fight with the flames, another fire was dangerously approaching the residences, this time in Whittier. If the fires are now under control, they raise fears of a disastrous year 2022, as written by the local daily, the Los Angeles Times : “We no longer have a fire season. But a year of fires.” “What prevents fires is rain, precipitation. And this kind of heat phenomenon tends to suggest that there is a risk of having a very early start to the wildfire season in California”, went in the same direction Justin Mankin, climate scientist at the university. American from Dartmouth, with AFP.
Jet-stream, high pressure dome and westerly winds
The early dry spell was largely due to obstruction of the jet stream from the Gulf of Alaska. Jet streams or jet streams are fast winds, from west to east, which carry precipitation. This phenomenon, threatened by global warming, is preponderant for the balance of climates. Winds from the Gulf of Alaska have been blocked for several weeks by a high pressure dome pushing them eastward.
It is a similar configuration that was at the origin of the fires in western California in July 2021. The inhabitants who have faced, since 2018, megafires like Dixie Fire or Camp Fire, fear the return of these embraces , destroying thousands of hectares of forest and homes. A few hours before the final of the American football championship, the Super Bowl, the most watched sporting event in the United States, which will be held in Los Angeles, California is preparing to host the hottest edition of sport -king since 1973.