October heat brings extreme fire danger

If you feel like you’ve been baking during the record-setting run of hot temperatures to start October, you’re not alone.

Vegetation in the Bay Area hills and mountains has been reacting the same way, and unfortunately this is spiking fire danger even higher during what is typically one of the driest times of the year.

Data from San Jose State’s Fire Weather Laboratory from the Santa Cruz Mountains shows live fuel moisture content for chamise, a common shrub to coastal mountain ranges in California, as being below average for moisture content.

This has led to a regional increase in significant wildfire potential, both near the Bay Area and across the rest of the state. 

New growth and old growth moisture values usually bottom out this time of year, but even when compared to those climatological averages the current conditions are next max dry values. 

Until we see sustained cooler temperatures, higher humidity or the start of the rain season, our region is likely to remain dangerously vulnerable to the season’s first offshore wind events, aka Diablo winds, which are common from October into November.