As a Southern Cali native that now lives in the Midwest, I can appreciate this a lot and have shared with many back home. Oh, by the way the Mountain ranges north and in the vicinity of LA are called the Transverse ranges.
Man…I never thought I’d ever be affected or completely relate to one of your breakdowns being from Southern California. My family settled in Altadena, California, exactly where the Eaton Fire is taking place. Some of my family evacuated and some did not to try and save their homes. My aunt that evacuated unfortunately lost her home on Meadowbrook rd on the west side of the golf course that burned down. They saw the fire engulf their home from their security cameras and all that’s left now is their chimney. My other aunt and uncle also on Meadowbrook rd but on the opposite side of the golf course were on the local news spraying flames down with a garden hose and carrying a bit pot filled with water. They were able to save their home thankfully. Businesses and homes I grew up seeing my whole life just being wiped off the map is surreal. We evacuated and are safe thankfully, but some of us definitely ache for everyone affected. Never take what you have for granted and always tell your family you love them. Great breakdown of a truly horrifying experience.
Man, I’m so sorry you and your family are going through that. I’m glad you and your aunt/uncle were able to make it out ok; I wish your other aunt the absolute best in the rebuilding process. I’m keeping you and your family and everyone else impacted in my thoughts.
The biggest thing from all this from a personal METR point of view was hearing Mountain Waves. I never heard that term at SUNY Oneonta like 15 years ago or so. It was like "what the heck are those"...looked it up and was like....."ah those." Lee Waves I remember the term more. Still it is the same thing. Basically the meterology from the event as a whole was pretty nuts. The Eaton Fire is still the main one going as the Palisades and Herst Fires have stalled and mostly been contained from spreading as they are focusing at keeping it in its boundaries and going from there. As you said, the meteorology for Santa Anna winds are a yearly thing. The thing that made this more nutty was the more widespread nature of this...especially that Pasadena sector. Not often winds hold that long but the good thing is the overnight winds never got to the fear 60-80 mph gusts. 30-50mph still was intense on the overnight but the biggest gusts stayed in early to Late evening. That helped the Herst and Palisades fires kind of plateau progress around 11pm PDT. Still we saw some pretty imprrssive gusts around Santa Monica and such but only one 80+mph gust and rest held around 40-68mph. Eaton one staying persistent as it is burning in a more wind favorable spot right now vs the other fires. Though the other fires mostly burning themselves out as not much was left to burn. Petty wild mocrodynamics at play. Got lucky a worst case scenario never played out overnight as models feared for peak winds.
These fires are insane. I live in LA and have a ton of family in the Palisades, at least two family members have already lost their homes and had to flee through burning streets and abandoned cars. Absolutely terrifying that this happened, especially so quickly.
Just so you know the fires actually started in 2019 then continued on into the summer of 2020 in Australia. There was an extreme el nino event in Australia during the time which caused extreme/catastrophic drought on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. That along with a bizarre law introduced, under the guise of environmental protection, that land owners were not allowed to clear their property of brush. Thus ground fuel was at record levels. These contributed significantly to the development of the fires. I don't really understand the weather of that time and situation, other than the fires were so huge that they were actually causing their own weather system. I remember seeing a fire that was so huge it was creating lightning similar to volcanic lightning. So A deep dive from your perspective would be an amazing video. I like how you didn't muck around and play the political game and try and blame climate change and actually found real evidence in the context of these fires.
@@ConvectiveChronicles G'day! Eucalyptus trees are highly flammable due to their oil-rich leaves, which can easily ignite and burn intensely. These oils can vaporize in the heat, creating a flammable gas, and the shedding bark can also carry fire up the tree, making them almost explosive in bushfire conditions.
I live on a slope about 2k feet up, up against the ANF, roughly between the Eaton and Hurst fires. I'm used to strong Santa Anas, but I've never seen anything like what happened last night. We've been under evac and had wildfires get close before. This exact combination of circumstances, though, is something I've long feared. I'm thankful we were spared, but it could have been our neighborhood just as easily.
Thanks, Trey! My daughter lives in Hawthorne. They’re safe but she says the air quality is horrible and ash is falling from the sky. She’s sent a couple of pictures of the smoke visible from her location and it’s bad. Heartbreaking knowing what’s happening on the ground where that smoke is originating. 😢
We are having the crazy winds here in Eastern Arizona too. Thankfully nothing is on fire here on we would have similar issues as our winds are sustained in the 40s and gusting 65-80 mph and our humidity is low.
Yeah, I'm in Phoenix right now and it's been breezy all day; I can imagine it's much, much worse up in the mountains. Thankfully the fire situation is relatively under control here.
I saw the fires starting off yesterday (online) and how fast it spread even before the main wind gusts is insane! Dry air and super gusty winds is a very bad combo...
30 year met here. Some Mets in the LA area are calling this a “cold Santa Ana” wind and a former colleague says the winds are indeed cold. Have you ever heard of this? I haven’t. The only thing I can think of is the Great Basin winds are very cold, so even with compression, it feels cool. Let me know what you think!
I have heard some rumblings of that, as well. "Cold" may be a bit of a misnomer; I'm sure they're quite a bit warmer than where they originated from, but it may just be they started a bit colder than normal.
I believe it was back in 2004 we had a massive fire in San diego. I remember waking up to a golden colored sky and the entire neighborhood covered in ash. I walked to Albertsons and all I saw was a golden sky, smell of burning, dead animals everywhere, and ash covering everything like snow. One of the eeriest things I’ve ever seen. Luckily our neighborhood was spared but many of the outlining houses next to the canyons were lightly charred. Now I live in tornado alley! Yay!
G'day Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia and these trees are highly flammable due to their oil-rich leaves, which can easily ignite and burn intensely. These oils can vaporize in the heat, creating a flammable gas, and the shedding bark can also carry fire up the tree, making them almost explosive in bushfire conditions.... But they've been introduced to many places worldwide, including California. They were brought there in the 19th century for timber, shade, and ornamental purposes. However, they can become fire hazards there as well due to their flammable nature. As is Aussies know only too well. Good luck yanks❤
Thanks for covering this Trey! Being a Cali account I really tried my best to warn my people with this, made a tiktok Monday that got 200k views which was literally just screenshots from NWS LOX Website. No other of my posts had gotten close before so I hope that I helped as many people as I could!
As a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, it sickens me to see this kind of tragedy. And unfortunately, I kinda expected it when I saw the wind forecasts, and knowing how dry the winter has been this year.
I appreciate your explanations. Very well done, subsrcined. I'll need to search up your videos. I'm looking for something explaining if the cooling of the (mostly mid) stratosphere has influence over the convection that happens in the troposphere? Thank you ✌
Thank you so much! I'm not 100% sure on that; I do know that stratospheric cooling has been linked to tropospheric warming, which would likely have a significant impact on convection. A warmer and more moist troposphere would likely mean more convection that might be more intense.
@@ConvectiveChronicles I heard a French engineer mention that the cooling of the stratosphere would increase convection rate. Searh: The research found that temperature decreases in the stratosphere, which are a consequence of human-caused increases in greenhouse gases, have led to a mean cooling of about 1.8 to 2.2 degrees Celsius in the middle and upper stratosphere globally from 1986 to 2022. AI tells me it might have local effects.... I think it's an interesting topic, but accurate info (including data) and understanding those physics in greater detail might be worth it.. You might be able to stimulate some physicist to look into it, if you think it's worth a look... ✌
Thanks for this, Trey. It is alarming how many conspiracy theories I’m seeing everywhere on social media, so I’m gonna drop this in as many places as possible lol.
It is so sad hearing the news and seeing pictures of everything happening, my friend is in southern los Angeles county so i am really worried for her. I am praying for everyone affected
Love the science If it tickles your fancy, would you be interested in doing a breakdown of the 2008 Hurricane Ike straight line damaging wind event? I live in Cincinnati and was out of school for 10 days because of all the damage
@ it was the most wild day. 70mph+ sustained winds, sun shining bright, me, an 8th grader, getting pushed up hills on my bike (until a roof almost took me out)
Great discussion! Almost half expecting the Foehn/adiabatic warming discussion. Glad you kept it in plain language.👍 I didn't realize the funneling effect off of the Great Basin. That would totally work like a wind tunnel. I have known about the sinking mountain waves (ever flown into Denver into a west wind?? A little bumpy😂). But the geography lesson surprised me a bit. Also somewhat shocking is how fires of this magnitude haven't happened more often-- the Santa Annas have been going on forever. Droughts in SoCal seem the norm rather than the outlier... Is there some detail I'm missing? 🤷♀️
Thanks for the in depth explanation buddy. It would be a shame if this information was spread and generally understood by the public. It would totally destroy the climate change narrative. The same thing happened here in eastern Australia in 2019
I think the fact Cal Berkley joined the ACC to make Millions instead of joining the Big West, lose money and fight "Climate Change" already destroyed the scam of "climate change". Rules for Thee, NOT for Me!!!!
Even in the face of tragedy like this, I don’t understand how people can keep denying climate change. The world is literally burning. Last year a part of Canada the size of Texas went up in flames. In 2025, fire season is going to be all year. I live in Arizona, so I understand most of what California is going through right now. I hope that no one died in this monster. Our species demonstrates an absolutely staggering amount of hubris sometimes.
Might be the worst wildfire I’ve seen in my 22 years on this earth in America. Prayers for the people injured and displaced. Hopefully no more fatalities
We used to have forest rangers in California who cleared the brush, but environmentalist yuppies got rid of them and have prevented the brush being cleared so unfortunately, you end up with so much kindling when that happens. It’s a recipe for disaster. Californians are shocked by the extent of these fires, but nobody seems surprised.
The role of my channel is not to report the news but rather to break down the meteorology behind it. I really don't know the extent of homes lost at this point, so I'm hesitant to give any specific details.
@@ConvectiveChronicles I think the caution is justified. My comment wasn't intended as a "you suck" by any means, just a "this feels a little off." I'll still take it Every Time over what news sources do anymore, which is turn everything into BS clickbait. So thank you for the video.
Is this actually an environmental thing or is it a political one? I believe the former but everyone else seems to believe the latter. I don't like how the news is covering this
There is zero political component to this; these Santa Ana wind events have happened in this area forever, this one just happened to kind of be a perfect storm of ingredients in a perfect area for maximized impacts.
Dam it’s almost like this happened a few years ago and they didn’t do anything about it. I’m sorry but all that tax money people have to pay for this to happen is just crazy.
Absolutely horrific. Extremely dry airmass combined with 80-100 mph winds is just a recipe for a bad fire event
As a Southern Cali native that now lives in the Midwest, I can appreciate this a lot and have shared with many back home. Oh, by the way the Mountain ranges north and in the vicinity of LA are called the Transverse ranges.
Man…I never thought I’d ever be affected or completely relate to one of your breakdowns being from Southern California. My family settled in Altadena, California, exactly where the Eaton Fire is taking place. Some of my family evacuated and some did not to try and save their homes. My aunt that evacuated unfortunately lost her home on Meadowbrook rd on the west side of the golf course that burned down. They saw the fire engulf their home from their security cameras and all that’s left now is their chimney. My other aunt and uncle also on Meadowbrook rd but on the opposite side of the golf course were on the local news spraying flames down with a garden hose and carrying a bit pot filled with water. They were able to save their home thankfully. Businesses and homes I grew up seeing my whole life just being wiped off the map is surreal. We evacuated and are safe thankfully, but some of us definitely ache for everyone affected. Never take what you have for granted and always tell your family you love them. Great breakdown of a truly horrifying experience.
Man, I’m so sorry you and your family are going through that. I’m glad you and your aunt/uncle were able to make it out ok; I wish your other aunt the absolute best in the rebuilding process. I’m keeping you and your family and everyone else impacted in my thoughts.
The biggest thing from all this from a personal METR point of view was hearing Mountain Waves. I never heard that term at SUNY Oneonta like 15 years ago or so. It was like "what the heck are those"...looked it up and was like....."ah those."
Lee Waves I remember the term more. Still it is the same thing.
Basically the meterology from the event as a whole was pretty nuts. The Eaton Fire is still the main one going as the Palisades and Herst Fires have stalled and mostly been contained from spreading as they are focusing at keeping it in its boundaries and going from there.
As you said, the meteorology for Santa Anna winds are a yearly thing. The thing that made this more nutty was the more widespread nature of this...especially that Pasadena sector. Not often winds hold that long but the good thing is the overnight winds never got to the fear 60-80 mph gusts. 30-50mph still was intense on the overnight but the biggest gusts stayed in early to Late evening. That helped the Herst and Palisades fires kind of plateau progress around 11pm PDT. Still we saw some pretty imprrssive gusts around Santa Monica and such but only one 80+mph gust and rest held around 40-68mph.
Eaton one staying persistent as it is burning in a more wind favorable spot right now vs the other fires. Though the other fires mostly burning themselves out as not much was left to burn. Petty wild mocrodynamics at play. Got lucky a worst case scenario never played out overnight as models feared for peak winds.
Absolutely terrifying situation I feel awful for everyone there. This has been a heartbraking event to see
Agreed...so sad to watch what's transpiring.
Thank you for checking in Trey. Just a horrible situation.
I was going to suggest a breakdown here...as usual, you're on top of it. Thank you!
Downslope winds are no joke. Those chinook winds dealt some serious damage with the Marshall fire here in Colorado.
Absolutely
I was just there over Christmas I can't believe it's the same place. This is insane. Thank you for an in-depth explanation that is so hard to find.
I've had to deal with fires in the Bighorn mountains of WY. I can't imagine what evacuation is like in such a high population density area
It was chaotic. Lots of folks had to just abandon their vehicles on the highways.
These fires are insane. I live in LA and have a ton of family in the Palisades, at least two family members have already lost their homes and had to flee through burning streets and abandoned cars. Absolutely terrifying that this happened, especially so quickly.
Dang, I’m sorry to hear that
I kinda want to learn about the 2020 Australia wildfires if there is enough data for a video after watching this well explained video
I can add it to the list. I'll have to see if there's a good data archive for Australia events.
Just so you know the fires actually started in 2019 then continued on into the summer of 2020 in Australia.
There was an extreme el nino event in Australia during the time which caused extreme/catastrophic drought on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. That along with a bizarre law introduced, under the guise of environmental protection, that land owners were not allowed to clear their property of brush. Thus ground fuel was at record levels. These contributed significantly to the development of the fires.
I don't really understand the weather of that time and situation, other than the fires were so huge that they were actually causing their own weather system. I remember seeing a fire that was so huge it was creating lightning similar to volcanic lightning.
So A deep dive from your perspective would be an amazing video. I like how you didn't muck around and play the political game and try and blame climate change and actually found real evidence in the context of these fires.
@@ConvectiveChronicles
G'day! Eucalyptus trees are highly flammable due to their oil-rich leaves, which can easily ignite and burn intensely. These oils can vaporize in the heat, creating a flammable gas, and the shedding bark can also carry fire up the tree, making them almost explosive in bushfire conditions.
Thanks, Trey! Keeping an eye on the gusty and howling winds while observing the wildfires in Los Angeles.
I live on a slope about 2k feet up, up against the ANF, roughly between the Eaton and Hurst fires. I'm used to strong Santa Anas, but I've never seen anything like what happened last night.
We've been under evac and had wildfires get close before. This exact combination of circumstances, though, is something I've long feared. I'm thankful we were spared, but it could have been our neighborhood just as easily.
I'm glad you made it out ok.
Thanks, Trey! My daughter lives in Hawthorne. They’re safe but she says the air quality is horrible and ash is falling from the sky. She’s sent a couple of pictures of the smoke visible from her location and it’s bad. Heartbreaking knowing what’s happening on the ground where that smoke is originating. 😢
I'm glad your daughter is safe...I can't imagine how bad the air quality is with all the smoke and ash in the air. Such a sad situation.
Absolutely devastating what is happening over there.. I really hope these fires get under control soon :(
We are having the crazy winds here in Eastern Arizona too. Thankfully nothing is on fire here on we would have similar issues as our winds are sustained in the 40s and gusting 65-80 mph and our humidity is low.
Yeah, I'm in Phoenix right now and it's been breezy all day; I can imagine it's much, much worse up in the mountains. Thankfully the fire situation is relatively under control here.
I saw the fires starting off yesterday (online) and how fast it spread even before the main wind gusts is insane!
Dry air and super gusty winds is a very bad combo...
30 year met here. Some Mets in the LA area are calling this a “cold Santa Ana” wind and a former colleague says the winds are indeed cold. Have you ever heard of this? I haven’t. The only thing I can think of is the Great Basin winds are very cold, so even with compression, it feels cool. Let me know what you think!
I have heard some rumblings of that, as well. "Cold" may be a bit of a misnomer; I'm sure they're quite a bit warmer than where they originated from, but it may just be they started a bit colder than normal.
I believe it was back in 2004 we had a massive fire in San diego. I remember waking up to a golden colored sky and the entire neighborhood covered in ash. I walked to Albertsons and all I saw was a golden sky, smell of burning, dead animals everywhere, and ash covering everything like snow. One of the eeriest things I’ve ever seen. Luckily our neighborhood was spared but many of the outlining houses next to the canyons were lightly charred. Now I live in tornado alley! Yay!
Wow, I can't imagine what that was like...glad your neighborhood was spared in that event!
Would love to hear some more vids on Fire Weather Forecasting!
G'day Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia and these trees are highly flammable due to their oil-rich leaves, which can easily ignite and burn intensely. These oils can vaporize in the heat, creating a flammable gas, and the shedding bark can also carry fire up the tree, making them almost explosive in bushfire conditions....
But they've been introduced to many places worldwide, including California. They were brought there in the 19th century for timber, shade, and ornamental purposes. However, they can become fire hazards there as well due to their flammable nature.
As is Aussies know only too well.
Good luck yanks❤
Thanks for covering this Trey! Being a Cali account I really tried my best to warn my people with this, made a tiktok Monday that got 200k views which was literally just screenshots from NWS LOX Website. No other of my posts had gotten close before so I hope that I helped as many people as I could!
I just heard from my stepsister just outside Pasadena. She's okay thank God. I'm agonized not being able to help anyone from here :(
I'm glad she's ok. So sad to see what's transpiring there.
Thank you for the rational explanation.
As a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, it sickens me to see this kind of tragedy. And unfortunately, I kinda expected it when I saw the wind forecasts, and knowing how dry the winter has been this year.
Yeah, it was kind of the perfect storm of ingredients in a perfect place to maximize impacts.
I appreciate your explanations. Very well done, subsrcined.
I'll need to search up your videos. I'm looking for something explaining if the cooling of the (mostly mid) stratosphere has influence over the convection that happens in the troposphere?
Thank you ✌
Thank you so much! I'm not 100% sure on that; I do know that stratospheric cooling has been linked to tropospheric warming, which would likely have a significant impact on convection. A warmer and more moist troposphere would likely mean more convection that might be more intense.
@@ConvectiveChronicles I heard a French engineer mention that the cooling of the stratosphere would increase convection rate.
Searh:
The research found that temperature decreases in the stratosphere, which are a consequence of human-caused increases in greenhouse gases, have led to a mean cooling of about 1.8 to 2.2 degrees Celsius in the middle and upper stratosphere globally from 1986 to 2022.
AI tells me it might have local effects....
I think it's an interesting topic, but accurate info (including data) and understanding those physics in greater detail might be worth it.. You might be able to stimulate some physicist to look into it, if you think it's worth a look...
✌
Thanks for this, Trey. It is alarming how many conspiracy theories I’m seeing everywhere on social media, so I’m gonna drop this in as many places as possible lol.
Sadly not surprising in this day and age...hopefully folks will be open to the science behind this event
Absolutely crazy...even here on the east coast, we have been having a lot of winds. What is up with the wind right now?
Just lots of strong pressure gradients!
It is so sad hearing the news and seeing pictures of everything happening, my friend is in southern los Angeles county so i am really worried for her. I am praying for everyone affected
Hopefully your friend ends up being ok.
Love the science
If it tickles your fancy, would you be interested in doing a breakdown of the 2008 Hurricane Ike straight line damaging wind event? I live in Cincinnati and was out of school for 10 days because of all the damage
Interesting; I can add it to the list!
@ it was the most wild day. 70mph+ sustained winds, sun shining bright, me, an 8th grader, getting pushed up hills on my bike (until a roof almost took me out)
Great discussion! Almost half expecting the Foehn/adiabatic warming discussion. Glad you kept it in plain language.👍
I didn't realize the funneling effect off of the Great Basin. That would totally work like a wind tunnel. I have known about the sinking mountain waves (ever flown into Denver into a west wind?? A little bumpy😂). But the geography lesson surprised me a bit.
Also somewhat shocking is how fires of this magnitude haven't happened more often-- the Santa Annas have been going on forever. Droughts in SoCal seem the norm rather than the outlier...
Is there some detail I'm missing? 🤷♀️
Thank you! You’re right; these kinds of events have happened forever, this one just seems to be a perfect storm in the perfect spot.
@@ConvectiveChronicles Gotcha. EEEK. Someone else used the best word to describe this: horrendous.
What do we do?
This is such a bad event 😞 thanks for the video Trey
How awful... I hope no one gets hurt :(
Thanks for the in depth explanation buddy. It would be a shame if this information was spread and generally understood by the public. It would totally destroy the climate change narrative.
The same thing happened here in eastern Australia in 2019
I think the fact Cal Berkley joined the ACC to make Millions instead of joining the Big West, lose money and fight "Climate Change" already destroyed the scam of "climate change". Rules for Thee, NOT for Me!!!!
Even in the face of tragedy like this, I don’t understand how people can keep denying climate change.
The world is literally burning. Last year a part of Canada the size of Texas went up in flames.
In 2025, fire season is going to be all year. I live in Arizona, so I understand most of what California is going through right now.
I hope that no one died in this monster.
Our species demonstrates an absolutely staggering amount of hubris sometimes.
Might be the worst wildfire I’ve seen in my 22 years on this earth in America. Prayers for the people injured and displaced. Hopefully no more fatalities
Yep, such a sad situation
Thanks for this. Hollywood is currently gridlocked trying to escape. Apocalyptic..
Crazy…Hopefully they can get these fires under control.
We used to have forest rangers in California who cleared the brush, but environmentalist yuppies got rid of them and have prevented the brush being cleared so unfortunately, you end up with so much kindling when that happens. It’s a recipe for disaster. Californians are shocked by the extent of these fires, but nobody seems surprised.
Wow. 😮
I totally get you being careful with your phrasing, but phrasing it as "several" homes lost still feels like massively downplaying it.
The role of my channel is not to report the news but rather to break down the meteorology behind it. I really don't know the extent of homes lost at this point, so I'm hesitant to give any specific details.
Sherrig just confirmed the Pasadena fire has claimed at least 1000 structures in press conference.@@ConvectiveChronicles
Dang, that's awful. Thanks
@@ConvectiveChronicles I think the caution is justified. My comment wasn't intended as a "you suck" by any means, just a "this feels a little off."
I'll still take it Every Time over what news sources do anymore, which is turn everything into BS clickbait. So thank you for the video.
Is this actually an environmental thing or is it a political one? I believe the former but everyone else seems to believe the latter. I don't like how the news is covering this
There is zero political component to this; these Santa Ana wind events have happened in this area forever, this one just happened to kind of be a perfect storm of ingredients in a perfect area for maximized impacts.
@ConvectiveChronicles Awesome, thank you so much.
Dam it’s almost like this happened a few years ago and they didn’t do anything about it. I’m sorry but all that tax money people have to pay for this to happen is just crazy.