“It’s like blowing on a barbecue - you invigorate the flames, you invigorate the combustion process so the fire can spread much, much better and faster,” Carmignani said. Ignitions that occur without wind or dryness can usually be managed, but strong winds make it easy for flames to propagate to the rest of the vegetation. The winds originate inland, gaining speed, warming up and drying out as they move from higher to lower elevations and squeeze through narrow canyons and passes. Indeed, Santa Ana winds have driven many major fires in Southern California, said Luca Carmignani, a University of California Cooperative Extension wildfire advisor based at the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine. “If you look at some of the largest fires in California’s history, especially Southern California, they started later in the year.” “When you have Santa Ana winds - winds that come from the east and blow to the west - it dries everything out,” Schuler said. Nick Schuler, Cal Fire’s deputy director of communications and emergency incident awareness, said in September that fire season was not over and that a prolonged wind event could still fan a blaze.

It’s something experts warned of in the weeks after Hilary made landfall. Gonsalves, of the weather service, said the storm’s rainfall contributed to “green-up” in the area, or the growth of new grasses, which may have subsequently dried out and could be feeding the fire. The fire was burning in an area that only recently was saturated by Tropical Storm Hilary, a rare storm that tore through swaths of Southern California in August.

California Highland fire burns 1,200 acres and multiple structures, spurs evacuations in Riverside CountyĪ wildfire broke out near the town of Aguanga in Riverside County on Monday, burning more than 1,200 acres and causing evacuations and road closures.

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