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10,849 lightning strikes and an extreme heat wave ignite hundreds of fires in California

CalTopo

 

 8/21/20 -- A scorching heat wave, thunderstorms, fires, evacuations, blackouts, and an earthquake all hit the county in the past few days. Needless to say, it’s been a wild week. 

 

Triple digit heat has been unrelenting in inland parts of the county, with high nighttime temperatures offering little relief. On Sunday, August 16, Ukaih tied it’s previous daily heat record of 107 degrees. Fort Bragg set a record the same day, reaching 79 degrees. 

 

Although yesterday was slightly cooler and today is supposed to be the same, forecasts from the National Weather Service show that the hot temperatures will rebound over the weekend and the triple digits will return to Ukiah starting tomorrow, reaching 104 by Monday. 

 

As the heat enveloped the county and storms started rolling in at the end of the weekend, Red flag warnings were announced throughout inland Mendocino. The same was true for much of northern and central california.

 

Back in Mendocino, to add to the mix of the lightning fires, there was also a fire caused by a gas leak in Ukiah that resulted in evacuations on North State street from Orr Springs Road to Lake Mendocino Drive. This fire was not under the jurisdiction of Cal Fire. 

Additionally six earthquakes above 2.5 magnitude hit between Willits and Redwood Valley on Tuesday. The largest was a 4.2 magnitude quake that’s epicenter was east southeast of willits. 

To top it all off, there have been “flex alerts,” encouraging customers to reduce energy by turning their thermostats up to at least 78 degrees, turning lights off, unplugging appliances, and more in order to sustain the power grid and avoid rolling blackouts, in place for most of the week. 

So how did we get here? Why is California experiencing these extreme weather conditions that create the perfect breeding grounds for catastrophic events like the one going on right now? Climate scientists say they don’t have the evidence to tie the thunderstorms directly to climate change, but that climate change definitely played a role in the record breaking heat, which, combined with unusual humidity that came up the coast from a tropical storm southwest of Baja, created conditions especially conducive to both stormy weather and wildfire. 

Local News