Box 1
From: Twenty-first century California, USA, wildfires: fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated fires
Extreme winds in California, USA, develop from a high pressure system in the interior Great Basin, coupled with a low pressure in the Pacific Ocean. (a) Smoke plumes blowing offshore from Santa Ana winds 26 October 2003 (MODIS image; https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2003/1027cafires.html). (b) Smoke plumes blowing offshore from North Winds during the Napa Sonoma fires of 9 October 2017 (MODIS image; https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91103/explosive-fires-in-northern-california). These are localized sub-regional events such that southern California Santa Ana wind events do not coincide with North Wind events. In northern California, other terms are sometimes used. For example, newspaper reporters coined the term Diablo Winds during the 1991 Tunnel Fire, apparently because these winds came from the direction of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, to the east. Southern California journalists haven’t been as creative and, for discussion, it is best to use North Winds and Santa Ana winds