Hello Amber:
Just now checking through our comments section on our website and saw that yours got lost among the junk ads. Sorry! But I just added another story, so check it out when yo get a chance. Enjoy what should be a long string of sunny days!
Bill Selby
wselby@smc.edu
http://www.rediscoveringthegoldenstate.com

Really enjoyed the CA section. I can’t even imagine a monsoon in CA. That’s crazy! We can’t even handle a drizzle without an increase in motor accidents in SoCal, let alone 2 month shower. I wonder if our many and various mountain ranges play a bigger role in why we aren’t typically known as flash flood ally. Texas is pretty flat in most places, there isn’t a lot of obstruction like in CA for as big as our state is.

Anyway, thanks for this read. I will have to re-read to get a better handle on it, but you laid it out very well and dare I say, beautifully in some areas. Are you a writer? 😉

1. Another wrinkle to the horrific weather conditions is what happens when a pyrocumulonimbus collapses: sudden microbursts of adiabatically heated downslope winds. The wind and temperature and relative-humidity data captured by the Mountain Rest weather station (elevation 4100 feet) operated by the Forest Service on the night of September 7-8 are jaw-dropping. This was the night when that fire did most of its structural damage, consuming large portions of Pine Ridge, immediately south of Shaver Lake. Miraculously, and to the tremendous credit of local officials who proactively evacuated the region on what otherwise would have been a very busy Labor Day weekend, no human lives were lost. Here is a link to the Mountain Rest weather data:
https://raws.dri.edu/cgi-bin/rawMAIN.pl?caCMOU

2. You are spot on in highlighting the complexity of factors at work in California’s amplified wildfire hazard. One of the frustrating things watching discussion around the fires is the silly and unhelpfully polarized debate between one camp that simplifies the story into “forest mismanagement” and another that simplifies the story into “climate change”. Not only are these fires a product of both, but each on its own is a complex set of issues for individuals, communities, and institutions to grapple with. The mismanagement of our forests can’t be distilled into a story of allegedly incompetent, ignorant managers at the Forest Service, Cal Fire, or other institutions. Sure, one can find incompetence and ignorance anywhere they go looking, but there are enormous and effective efforts going on, year after year, to mitigate the wildfire hazard. Are these efforts anywhere close to what they could and should be? No. But it is not the case that nothing has been done. Here is an insightful recent interview with a former Sierra National Forest firefighter who now teaches at Reedley College. https://gvwire.com/2020/09/18/ex-forest-firefighter-says-red-tape-for-prevention-work-is-daunting/

3. For all the geography students and enthusiasts out there, GIS and other geospatial technologies are absolutely essential both to fighting these fires and managing these fire-prone lands. Because of personal connection, I have been following the Creek Fire very closely and hope to return to the area soon and begin documenting the recovery efforts that will continue for many years ahead. The number and range of interactive maps used to guide fire fighters, law enforcement, journalists, and the general public is impressive, and we would be lost without all of these geographic tools. At some point I will compile an annotated list of Creek Fire geospatial links and share it with you. No doubt the same could be done with any of our fires in and beyond California.