TINDER-DRY CONDITIONS PROMPT RED FLAG FIRE ALERT FOR FORESTS, HILLS.Byline: Phillip W. Browne Staff Writer Triple-digit temperatures returned to the Southland on Monday, when the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning A Red Flag Warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to tell area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition and propagation. for the mountains of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and Ventura counties, citing extreme fire danger. The humidity dropped as temperatures rose in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and surrounding areas, and brush in the mountains remained bone dry. Forecasters say it will cool down a few degrees toward the end of the week, although high temperatures will still be in the 90s. ``We have been very dry this year, and in previous years. The potential for a fire getting out of control is extremely high,'' said NWS NWS National Weather Service NWS Naval Weapons Station NWS New World Symphony NWS Nuclear Weapon State NWS Not Work Safe NWS National Watercolor Society NWS North Warning System NWS Nose Wheel Steering NWS National Waste Strategy (UK) meteorologist Bruce Rockwell. ``People definitely need to be extremely careful.'' The red flag warning will be in effect through Wednesday, primarily because humidity in the mountains will fall below 10 percent during the day and reach only between 15 percent and 30 percent at night. During a normal August or September day, humidity ranges between 35 percent and 40 percent, Rockwell said. While no temperature records were broken Monday, the heat was unavoidable. Woodland Hills, Lancaster and Palmdale each recorded 101 degrees, while Chatsworth topped out at 96 and Burbank, 90. The fire danger prompted the U.S. Forest Service to institute a new wave of restrictions on smoking and campfires in the Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a forest located in southern and central California, which includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland. Elevations range from sea level to 8,831 feet. , beginning today. The restrictions include a smoking ban for the entire forest, with the exception of designated campsites, and a ban on wood and charcoal fires - or other camping stoves that use pressurized pres·sur·ize tr.v. pres·sur·ized, pres·sur·iz·ing, pres·sur·iz·es 1. To maintain normal air pressure in (an enclosure, as an aircraft or submarine). 2. fuel - everywhere but in designated campfire sites where campground managers are present or patrols are frequent. ``Our typical fuel moisture for August is about 66 percent,'' said Los Padres spokeswoman Heidi Anderson Heidi Anderson is an American voice actor from Honolulu, Hawaii. She is best known to gamers as the voice of Jill Valentine from the Nintendo Gamecube version of Resident Evil. She was also the voice of Samantha Sitbon in the game Killer7. , referring the forest officials' own measure of local fire danger. ``Right now we're at 56 percent and dropping. It's very dangerous out there.'' Also as a result of the extreme fire danger, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich announced Monday that the two Canadian SuperScooper firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. airplanes, which are normally leased in late September, have arrived in Van Nuys and will be put into service Wednesday. The heat is the result of a strong high-pressure ridge forming over Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , which is not unusual for August. But that coupled with the fact that Los Angeles this year was 6 inches under the average annual rainfall, and has been in a drought period for five years, has caused forest officials deep concern. The last time Los Angeles recorded higher than average 15 inches of annual rainfall was during the El Nio storms in 1998. As a result, trees and brush in the mountainous regions have dried more quickly each year. Phillip W. Browne, (818) 713-3707 phillip.browne(at)dailynews.com |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion