The kind of super-dry, hot gusty Santa Ana winds is typical weather for SoCal in late Sept-October unfortunately (and we had the condition back then). But the fact that it's in December now shows you how much the climate has changed (we've never had it anywhere near this late for as long as I can remember). And it's not just for a day, this is been for about 3 days already, and it's still going strong. Thankfully I'm okay where I am (though I could certainly smell the fires), but do have some colleagues who have been evacuated.
Fires every year, yes. But the end of the recent multi-year drought also brought back huge amounts of vegetation, now reaching its burnable season. Plus I'm hearing reports of a fire risk index (temperature, winds, humidity, vegetation moisture level, etc.) reaching a record high score.
The relative humidity in these Santa Ana winds is reportedly incredibly dry (about 1 or 2%). So it leeches any moisture out of whatever it crosses. Add 50-60mph winds that spread embers far and wide, and the firefighters are pretty much helpless.
It is bad. I hope conditions change to get things under control. We had bad fires here a few years ago and it's devastating in so many ways.
