This is a developing story. Check this page for more updates.
A neighborhood in northern Santa Rosa (Google Earth and California Highway Patrol)
The Tubbs fire, the largest blaze in Sonoma County, started late Sunday night in Calistoga before spreading to Santa Rosa according to a Cal Fire official. It’s estimated the fire has burned 27,000 acres.
A second fire—the Atlas Fire—started off Atlas Peak Road before burning southwest to just outside of the city of Napa, according to Cal Fire, which confirmed two deaths in the blaze and Napa County. The fast-moving fire is also estimated to have destroyed 25,000 acres.
There are at least two other fires in Sonoma and Napa counties with another happening just north in Mendocino County near Redwood Valley as of Monday evening. One person was killed in the Mendocino County fire. The sheriff of Sonoma County has confirmed seven additional deaths.
How these fires got so bad
A big ridge of high pressure has lingered just east of California’s mountains this month over the Great Basin. In this type of weather pattern, wind from the east rises on the mountain’s upslope, which causes moisture to condense. Clouds form and sometimes it rains on that side of the mountains, removing moisture.
Winds then crest over the ridge and sink. As the air moves along the downslope, it is compressed by the change in pressure, causing the wind to become faster, hotter and dryer making conditions for wildfires worse.
A satellite view of smoke from the wildfires in Northern California. High winds fueled the fires, which spread quickly.
Millions of acres burned in the U.S. each year from Jan. 1 to Oct. 6
In the last ten years, there have been only two other seasons with more acres burned. In 2015, more than 9.1 million acres had burned by this time in the year. Major fires in Montana as well as in Oregon forced hundreds to evacuate as smoke drifted into the atmosphere across the country.
Red dots are fires detected by NASA’s TERRA/MODIS satellite in 2017
Santa Rosa issued a mandatory evacuation of its residents in affected areas at 10 a.m. PT Monday morning after the city manager declared the fires a local emergency. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) also declared a state emergency as fires continued to rip through northern and southern parts of the state.
Several neighborhoods in northern Santa Rosa were almost completely burned to the ground including Fountaingrove, according to Cal Fire director Ken Pimlott, who spoke with the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s fair to say it’s been destroyed,” he said of the Fountaingrove neighborhood.
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