Allocating Blame as California Burns

"With climate change, some scientists are saying California is literally burning up."
"[The immense blazes represent] the new normal [California has been introduced to] the new reality."
California Governor Jerry Brown

"[Usually, winds in the area] flow from the west, carrying cool, humid air from the [Pacific Ocean] onshore."
"[But the hot, dry Diablos [winds] reversed course. It now blows from the northeast toward the ocean at 65 km/hr, with gusts up to 120 km/hr, giving massive impetus to the fires]."
"These hot, dry winds develop from an unusual pattern of high and low pressure cells, and are most prominent in autumn. They follow the normal summer and fall drought that occurs in this Mediterranean-type climate, leading to severe fire weather conditions."
"The speed of these fires is a major factor leading to the loss of human lives."
"Nearly all fires in Sonoma County are caused directly or indirectly by people, such as intentional ignitions or power lines igniting fires. Population growth raises the probability of fire igniting under severe weather conditions."
Jon Keeley, research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey

Officials are currently unsure what sparked the wildfires in Southern California.  (The Associated Press)

And so, California, which every year without fail, suffers catastrophic wildfires difficult to control much less extinguish, exacting a great cost in human lives, firefighting, and destroyed property, is now facing the seeming potential of much exacerbated conditions leading to ever greater such natural phenomena. Raging infernos have struck around Los Angeles, convincing people living there that what they are witnessing and have ample cause to fear, are events much worse than those experienced in the past.

Over forty people were left dead from the Sonoma County fires north of San Francisco where the Thomas Fire has succeeded in destroying 800 structures, damaging or threatening over 18,00 more in the Santa Barbara area. Another unprecedented phenomena emerged when California underwent a five-year drought, concluding only last year. There's a misguided belief that even in ordinary circumstances California never receives rain, but that is a misconception that reality proves otherwise.

A fire truck drives up Romero Canyon to a house surrounded by smoke from the Thomas Fire in Montecito as California battles against a devastating blaze

In the winter months it rains in the southern portion of the state. In the northern and central mountains there is ample snow, and come spring snow melts, irrigating the valleys below. Where foliage blooms everywhere thanks to that moisture all over the state. Famously, California artists paint entrancing landscapes of California in seasonal bloom, vast seas of colour. But when summer arrives, the hot sun bakes the atmosphere and the landscape becomes dry when moisture is scarce.

"Plants are happy and growing well in the winter time, and when summer proceeds to the fall they get drier and drier."
"The amount of water in the plants get lower and lower and lower; it means that they are very dry. When it gets to critical threshold level and a fire comes through, they're very flammable. It happens every year."
"The intensity of the Santa Ana winds is about as extreme as they get [driving the Thomas Fire into legend]."
Marti Witter, fire ecologist, National Park Service, Santa Monica National Recreation Area

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve / Rennett Stowe,

And then there is the simple, obvious, and quite discomfiting fact that county planners and housing developers are directly responsible for much of the destruction that takes place when multitudes of buildings are consumed in these implacable fire situations. Right contiguous with wildlands in the West, two million homes went up in both Washington and California, according to Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit independent group studying wildfire prevention.

These scenic areas are in high demand. When houses are built where they are vulnerable to such natural outcomes as seasonal fires reacting from weather and climate conditions, peoples' homes are heartbreakingly destroyed, and the residents themselves are placed in mortal danger. Residents treasure their access to the natural beauty in such remote locations, despite the moderate to high risk of experiencing wildfires and the fire-torching of their homes. An estimated $500-billion-worth of property destruction results, figures from CoreLogic, a company specializing in real estate economics.

"It's a witch's brew. The risk keeps increasing. I'm putting firefighters in harm's way", says Tom Harbour, former national fire and aviation director for the Forest Service.

The Thomas Fire is southern California spread 50,000 acres in just one day making it the fifth largest wildfire in modern California history.  Fox News