Envirocast® On-Line Feature of the Week -- October 23, 2007

Southern California Wildfires

The images in this Envirocast® Bulletin were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite on October 22, 2007. They show wildfires in Southern California, most notably the the Los Angeles and the San Diego areas.

Southern California Wildfires

This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the fires on Monday afternoon, October 13, 2007, with a smoke plume extending 480 miles into the Pacific Ocean. 

 

Los Angeles Wildfires

natural-color image

This image shows a zoom in view of the many fires affecting the Los Angeles area.

false-color image

In the false-color image, combination of infrared bands from MODIS have been added to the image to make burn scars (deep red) stand out better from vegetation (bright green), water (black), and smoke (light blue). 

 

San Diego Wildfires

natural-color image

This image shows a zoom in view of the many fires affecting the San Diego area.  

false-color image

In the false-color image, combination of infrared bands from MODIS have been added to the image to make burn scars (deep red) stand out better from vegetation (bright green), water (black), and smoke (light blue).  

 

Air Quality

Credit: AIRNow

Much of Southern California is experiencing poor air quality due to the fires.  Many areas are either in the Moderate (yellow) or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (orange).  One station north of San Diego is reporting Very Unhealthy (purple) conditions.

 

Health officials urged the young, the elderly and those with breathing problems to stay indoors until further notice as Southern California's wildfires continued to pollute the air with smoke, gas and dust.  Even healthy adults were told to avoid exerting themselves outdoors, and schools from San Diego to San Bernardino were urged to cancel open-air gym classes.  In addition to smoke from the fires, strong Santa Ana winds are expected to increase dust and fine particles to unhealthy levels in many parts of the area.  Officials warned that the tiniest particles posed the greatest health risk and threatened to aggravate emphysema, asthma, heart disease and other medical conditions.  Air quality officials said it was rare for so many Southern California communities to be affected at the same time.

Environmental Impacts:

  • With some 245,957 acres, or 384 square miles, ablaze, Gov. Schwarzenegger had declared a state of emergency in seven counties on Sunday, and President Bush had called to offer federal assistance with the blazes.

  • San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the number of evacuees in San Diego County alone topped 300,000. The number was expected to be far greater throughout all of Southern California.

  • More than 1,000 homes and businesses had been destroyed across Southern California, most in San Diego County or the mountains east of Los Angeles.

  • Gov. Schwarzenegger said 800 National Guard troops would be diverted from duty on the southern border to assist with evacuation and ground control in the country.

  • The wildfires claimed one life, in San Diego County, and injured 42, including at least 16 firefighters.

  • State emergency officials said they feared that the fires, devouring some of the thickest and driest brush in years, could surpass the destruction of 2003, when California experienced its worst fire season on record.

  • The Ranch Fire in Angeles National Forest is burning approximately 29,000 acres, and it is at 10 percent contained. This fire is seven miles north of Castaic. Currently evacuations are in effect in the Hasley Canyon, Oak Springs, Val Verde and Piru area.

  • The Buckweed Fire in Los Angeles County, is burning 20,000 acres at zero percent contained. This fire is 14 miles west of Palmdale. Communities of Santa Clarita, Castaic, Leona Valley, Green Valley, Acton, Agua Dulce, Mint Canyon are threatened.

  • The hot, gusting winds, not expected to let up until late Tuesday, at times grounded fire-fighting airplanes, which are pivotal for their ability to dump tremendous amounts of water and fire retardant.

  • Santa Ana winds are a California firefighter’s nightmare. These blustery, dry, and often hot winds blow out of the desert and race through canyons and passes in the mountains on their way toward the coast. The air is hot not because it is bringing heat from the desert, but because it is flowing downslope from higher elevations.

  • As fall progresses, cold air begins to sink into the Great Basin deserts to the east of California. As the air piles up at the surface, high pressure builds, and the air begins to flow downslope toward the coast. When winds blow downslope, the air gets compressed, which causes it to warm and dry out.  Not only do the winds spread the fire, but they also dry out vegetation, making it even more flammable.

Supplementary Material:

NASA's AQUA Satellite:

  • Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice. The Aqua spacecraft (formally known as EOS-PM) was successfully launched on May 4, 2002 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California. It is flying at an altitude of 705 km (438 miles) observing the Earth, and the life expectancy is 6 years. [Aqua's Orbit], [Animation of MODIS Observing the Earth]

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