One factor made the recent LA County wildfires so deadly and fast moving: Wind.
Downslope, wind-driven fires are dangerous enough to merit their own study. Consider that 13.4% of wildfires in the U.S. between 1992 and 2020 happened under such weather conditions, with even greater portions of land and property damage as well as fatalities occurring during windy firestorms, according to a May 2023 article in the science journal Earth’s Future.
Researchers also determined that every 10% that wind speed increases during a fire doubles the speed at which that blaze can travel.
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Elana Ashanti Jefferson
Elana Ashanti Jefferson serves as ALM's PropertyCasualty360 Group Chief Editor. She is a veteran journalist and communications professional. Reach her by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
