Fires in Los Angeles: Because it is difficult to control – The Santa phenomenon Ana also observed in Greece

It was 10.30 (local time) of 7 January 2025 when the flames began to emerge one after another from his Palisades district and spread within minutes at a dizzying speed in the rich district between Malibu and Santa Monica. And as the hours passed different fronts broke out, filling the wider Los Angeles area with suffocating and suffocating smoke, ashes and excrement, in one of the worst fires in California history. CORVERSE Although we are in the “heart of winter” the drought, heat and very strong winds contributed to the rapid spread of these fires making them, “the most destructive” that have occurred in the Los Angeles region, as explains in the Athenian – Macedonian News Agency Dr Craig B. Clements (Craig B. Clements) professor of Meteorology at the University of San Jose, USA and director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for the San Jose University fires. “It may take many days to control them. The problem is that the Los Angeles area is in drought, as it receives only 4% of expected rainfall for this time of the year. Thus, the humidity of fuel is extremely low, especially for this time. This event, combined with the extreme windstorm with wind gusts at a speed of 90+ miles per hour (144 km/h) creates devastating conditions for the extreme spread of the fire,” points out Mr Clements. The sweeping fires in Los Angeles have left behind the dead as well as incalculable disasters in environment and property, while as Dr. Gabriel Xanthopoulos points out, the Director of Research at the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems of ELGO “Demeter”, these are not just fires of “Wildland Urban Interface Fires” settlements. “Here this fire no longer passes through the mixture of forest vegetation with homes. These fires spread, and once they expand into the first houses, they pass because of the winds from house to house. This is the characteristic in this case, and that is why it makes it difficult to extinguish them,” Mr. Xanthopoulos tells the APE. ADVERSE “California known for its special challenges” Turning the year nearly 17 years back the Vice-Firemaster and Chief of Operations of the 1st Special Disaster Response Unit (EMAK), Constantine Tsakiris remembers his own experience from the firefighting operation in California. As he points out in the RES-ABC in July 2008 he had participated as a member of the Greek expedition made up of firefighters of the 1st Special Disaster Response Unit (E.M.A.K.), in dealing with two major fires (mega firmes) for a period of 28 days in the state of California. “In 2008 California faced one of the worst periods of forest fires in its history. Before our arrival, we had been informed of the extreme conditions that prevailed in the areas that we would attempt, so we were psychologically prepared,” Mr. Tsakiris notes that their work there required close cooperation with local firefighting teams. “In fact, directly, we were integrated into the field of operations with local foot-and-mouthed sections (hot shots – special foot-and-mouthed forest fire management departments of California Forest Service). We also knew that teamwork was the key to successful cooperation because we had to coordinate our joint actions, in difficult and unpredictable conditions combined with psychological pressure that was indeed great in the field,” he notes and adds: “My participation in this mission was indeed experience of life, I learned much, I realized even more the power of nature but also the need for cooperation of all actors to deal with critical situations.” According to Mr. Tsakiris California is known for the particular challenges it faces during the fires due to its geographical location, which, he says, is similar to Greece. “In several areas its climate is Mediterranean, with dry summers and high temperatures that meet even in the winter season, as in Greece, which during the year creates long periods of drought, thus increasing the risk of fires spreading. Also, many urban areas are within forest areas (Wildlands – urban interfaces) By increasing the risk of fire in homes and infrastructure”, he stresses and adds that the fight against forest fires requires specialized training mainly, due to the specific conditions and dangerous or extreme phenomena that develop during their development, to manage and coordinate all relevant bodies as well as to exploit technology (drones, thermal cameras, GPS to detect fires). For Mr. Tsakiris the challenges faced by firefighters in Los Angeles are many due to the geography and special conditions prevailing in the wider area. This, he explains, is due on the one hand to the Santa phenomenon Ana which results in speeding up the spread of fires resulting in the difficulty of firefighting operations as the speed of transmission and the often unpredictable direction of winds endanger the lives of those operating and their equipment and on the other hand the fact that many areas are close to forests and mountains (Griffith Park and Hollywood Hills). Therefore, as he says, urbanization near these areas makes the evacuation process difficult and increases the risks to people and property. At the same time, as Mr. Tsakiris says, the geomorphological challenges ( hills and ravines), but also the fact that many areas are multiple and the associated phenomena of the fire are mainly the toxic gases released from it. “We all understand that climate conditions have changed worldwide and we now have large forest fires and in winter, so we must be more careful and prepared,” Mr. Tsakiris points out. The powerful Santa Ana weather phenomenon The winds of Santa Ana blowing in the wider region contributed decisively to the rapid spread of fires that have already burned hundreds of thousands of acres. As the doctor of meteorology and researcher in the FLAME pyrometerological group of the METEO/ the National Observatory of Athens, George Papavassiliou, reports, these are local seasonal winds, which appear in the cold months of the year in the area quite often. “It’s not a new phenomenon. It has been a phenomenon known for decades, for more than a century. This phenomenon is formed when we have a weather pattern, with high pressure in the north of the Los Angeles area, in the highlands of Nevada and Utah (Great Basin), and when this is combined with lower pressures, mostly in areas south of Los Angeles, that is, towards the Pacific Ocean Sea region and Baja, California. Essentially then this ideal field of pressure is formed, so that we have strong northeast winds in the region. Of course, in addition to this natural phenomenon in itself, when this is combined with a long period of drought, which makes vegetation extremely dry and flammable, then those very dangerous pyrometarological conditions are formed for the occurrence of such incidents, as we have seen in recent days. Such incidents, both large and with similar, unfortunately and tragic consequences, with too many casualties, have also recently been in 2018 at Camp Fire, in November 2018 , where then we had a similar pyrometerological pattern of weather in Northern California with the prevalence of the winds “Diablo” (similar to the winds Santa Ana)”, says Mr Papavassiliou and stresses that the long period of drought increases the available fuel by favouring the spread of the fire. Typical of this phenomenon, according to Mr Papavassiliou, is that due to its origin, the winds come from areas with higher altitude (winds descend), they are subject to a process called impassable heating. “The air, as it descends from the high mountain volumes, is compressed and heated, while at the same time the relative humidity of falling below 10 %. Moreover, as the air is forced to move through narrow topographic passages, interacts with intense topography and wind intensity increases, resulting in air masses reaching the coastal areas and lower altitude areas being extremely hot and dry escorts of strong winds. So this cocktail of very strong hot and dry winds shapes those very favourable conditions for the rapid spread of a fire when and when it occurs,” he notes. From his point of view, Mr. Xanthopoulos points out that the winds of Santa Ana have also contributed decisively in the past to the display of great lights in the area. “ The Santa Ana wind comes from the Mojavi Desert, it is downhill and is too dry. As it descends the slopes of the Los Angeles mountains it grows warmer and drier. Automatically, when the temperature rises, the relative humidity falls, resulting in the effects that we are witnessing in combination with the drought that exists in California and which reaches the point of making any vegetation flammable, burdening the situation,” points out Mr. Xanthopoulos while adding that as he described his professor from the University of Berkeley in California the only way to control such fires is to increase relative humidity. Are there similar phenomena in Greece? According to Mr Papavassiliou such winds, such as Santa Ana, belong to the large family of the “downhill winds”, which are created when the air moves over mountain volumes. “It is the typical winds, as we call them in some areas of our country, meadows, descending winds, which essentially encounter a mountain volume and then descend from the mountain volume at lower altitudes. Such winds we have in several areas, since our country is characterized by intense topography. We observe them in several areas, for example in the area of Thessaly, Peloponnese and of course Crete. It’s not a stranger or an unprecedented phenomenon. We share this phenomenon with the region of California along with many others we share climatics”, explains Mr Papavassiliou to the APE and adds: “What we have to keep as a substance is that in our country there are weather patterns that essentially give local such winds, meadows, descending winds, that shape these dangerous pyrometarological conditions. They are different types from region to region”. As to whether an increase in such phenomena is recorded, Mr Papavassiliou points out that after the relevant publication of the pyrometerological group “FLAME” where the pyroteorological types of weather in Greece were studied, which most often give this combination of warm, dry and windy weather to parts of the eastern and southern countries, they noticed that the last 40 years have occurred more frequently. “We have already seen an increase in the appearance of those patterns of weather that favour these conditions, especially in areas of the eastern and southern countries. However, we must stress that this requires a much more profound analysis, which we intend to do in our group, anyway, in this direction we are working on, so that these regions can be more detailed and, of course, identify possible trends on a more local scale. Such an in-depth mapping is a crucial tool, not only from a climatic point of view but also for the development of predictive tools that can contribute substantially to the management of forest fires. Early recognition of areas with an increased probability of extremely dangerous pyrometarological conditions, especially when vegetation is in critical condition, enables early prevention measures to be taken, reducing both the risk of fires and their impact on the natural and anthropogenic environment,” he notes. What is happening with Mediterranean countries According to Dr Clements, the fuel that one encounters in California is quite similar to Greece, “as are the winds that blow out and descend from the mountains.” “What is also similar is WUI, (Wildland Urban Interface) where houses are nestled between trees and dense vegetation along the steep mountains near the sea/ ocean. Greece has very similar geography to California,” notes Dr. Clements. However, as Mr. Xanthopoulos explains, although California is one of the regions of the planet that has a Mediterranean climate, a factor affecting the dimensions of fires there and different from the Mediterranean countries is the resilience of structures. “The main difference is that our own homes in the Mediterranean are more durable. This is something that saves us. We have a chance if our house is properly prepared to save it. There this cannot happen,” points out Mr. Xanthopoulos. According to Mr. Xanthopoulos, fires that acquire characteristics of “large-fire” cannot be treated by any type of fire forces until the conditions prevailing at the point change. “It is outside the possibilities of tackling,” notes Mr. Xanthopoulos. “What citizens need to understand is that when such conditions prevail one way is to prepare his home for this case,” he stresses and adds that in the coming years emphasis needs to be placed on reducing disasters. “No matter how strong we strengthen the fire mechanism, they will not stop extreme fires of this type. We may and should have the mechanism to do immediate surgery, do effective forest firefighting, have good planning, etc. But there will be those fires that we can’t do anything about. The citizen must take his own measures and know what to do and prepare. For us, the message is that from one point on, we should stop blindly increasing firefighting and place substantial emphasis on prevention and with specifications Greek because some of the elements that Greek civil protection carried and tried to impose from last year come out of America that we are talking about a different environment. We need to match them to the Greek conditions,” points out Mr. Xanthopoulos.