#scripps — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Sasha Alexander #Gershunov, ocean-atmosphere and #fireweather climate scientist at #Scripps speaks about the #SantaAna phenomenon and wildfires in SoCal.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/california-wildfire-analysis-scripps-oceanography-climate-experts

He mentions in passing that SoCal is experiencing an upward trend in fire-prone weather (dryness before the normal ultra-dry Santa Ana comes in)
with abundance of fuel load due to atmospheric rivers in the preceding year(s) – and adds, that this trend is not projected for the future.
Whether this means that the statistics are a fluke or that the model projections are missing something that the statistics are telling us, is not said.
In this context, they link to an #openaccess 2022 paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-022-06361-7
by #Guirguis and Sasha Gershunov et al "Winter wet–dry weather patterns driving atmospheric rivers and Santa Ana winds provide evidence for increasing wildfire hazard in California"
This one paints a broader picture with fireweather_fuel-load teleconnection to the Northwest coast of America, Some form of swing or seesaw pattern of pressure highs and lows.
When I hear teleconnection, I intuitively associate a climate connection.

The Scripps article with Sasha Gershunov brings further information. I only cherry-picked this one item. Have a read for more background on LA fires. 🙂