- Author
- National Weather Service
- Title
- Southern California Wildfires October 20 to November 3, 2003. Service Assessment.
- Coporate
- National Weather Service, Silver Spring, MD
- Keywords
- wildland fires | weather effects | warning systems | statistics | wind effects | fire fatalities | death | costs | dissters | fire fighters | fire fighting
- Identifiers
- event overview; warning and forecast services; map of southern California county warning and forecast areas; location map of wildfires; event statistics
- Abstract
- Land management agencies and fire control personnel battled fourteen wind-driven wildfires across southern California in late October and early November 2003. These fires killed 22 people, destroyed 3,600 homes, blackened nearly 740,000 acres, and will end up as one of the more costly natural disasters in California history, according to then Governor Gray Davis. We assessed the two southern California Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and services provided by the NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) deployed to several of the wildfires. We also reviewed the performance of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP) Storm Prediction Center (SPC), which issues national Fire Weather Outlook products. The service assessment focused on the period October 20 through November 3, 2003. The assessment team found consistent, high quality products, services, and information were provided by the NWS during this time period. Wildfires can leave large areas devoid of vegetation and vulnerable to producing large volumes of runoff leading to flash floods, floods, or mudslides. To accommodate the change in conditions after a wildfire, River Forecast Centers (RFC) often reassess their modeling procedures and work with the WFOs they service to understand the changes and better monitor the recovering areas. The team did not assess the California-Nevada RFC but felt some of their actions during the aftermath of these wildfires were noteworthy. A list of these actions can be seen in the Best Practices section on page 27.