Heat and Santa Anas push Malibu toward early fire danger
Fire safety liaison warns brush moisture is dropping fast, with a possible heavy El Niño looming this winter.
Two weeks of hot weather have baked the huge amounts of grass and weeds that sprouted up after record-breaking rains in the Malibu mountains.
City fire safety liaison Gabriel Etcheverry is warning that the recent hot weather is going to put Malibu on the wrong side of the curve — the measurement of moisture in the brush, the index marking the likelihood of severe fire danger.
The live fuel moisture content is measured every month at designated sections of the mountains above Malibu. Heavy rains this winter have kept that index well above 100 — nice and moist. When it gets down to 80, we are in fire danger. When it drops to 60, like it does most Octobers, that is when we are in the most danger.
But Malibu has seen unheard-of springtime Santa Ana winds, bordering on Red Flag fire danger conditions.
And if the worry about this fall is not bad enough, Etcheverry says Southern California is transitioning into a 60 percent chance of a heavy El Niño this winter. That brings a significant possibility of devastating winter storms.