Firefighters facing hot and dry weather conditions while battling Gifford Fire
Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Firefighters battling the Gifford Fire in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are facing difficult weather conditions while out on the fire lines.
“Temperatures are very warm out there, 80s to mid 90s,” said Rich Thompson, National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist. “It’s very dry out there. Humidity is down to like, 15-to-20%, and they’re getting their usual canyon winds. They are out there in the terrain and getting those up canyon winds in the afternoon.”
Thompson, a 30-year veteran weather forecaster who is currently working at the Incident Command Post at the Santa Maria Elks Event Center, added conditions across the Gifford Fire location, which includes the two counties on both sides of Highway 166, are normal for this time of year.
“Really nothing out of the ordinary, just very typical early August conditions,” said Thompson. “Just very typical mid-to-early August conditions here for this part of Southern California.”
While temperatures are high and humidities are low, the good news for now, according to Thompson has been the absence of high winds.
“There are really no significant winds,” said Thompson. “There are just those typical diurnal winds, so that’s one thing that’s in the favor, is that no extreme or out of the ordinary wind event. That being said, there still be some pretty gusty spots out there. Gusts like around 20, maybe even 25 miles per hour that can cause the fire to spread very quickly if it gets aligned with the wind and the topography.”
Looking ahead, Thompson is predicting an temperatures to rise over the next few days.
“We’re looking for a warming trend the next couple days,” said Thompson. “It looks like Thursday will be the warmest day of the next several. By Thursday, we will see temperatures widespread across the fire in the 90s, maybe even some low 100s in some lower elevation spots. With those warmer temperatures, Wednesday and Thursday is going to be drier, probably humidities at 10-to-15%.”
As of Tuesday night, the Gifford Fire has grown to 83,933 acres, making it the largest fire in California this year, surpassing the nearby Madre Fire, which burned 80,779 acres along Highway 166 in July.
Containment on the fire rose on Tuesday to 9% and firefighters slowed its southern movement and made progress in constructing fire lines to the west.
There are nearly 2,300 personnel battling the Gifford Fire, which fire broke last Friday near the Gifford Trailhead.
The fire is burning about 15 miles northeast of Santa Maria and there are just under 900 structures that are listed as threatened.