The Southern California Wildfires of 2003

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The Southern California Wildfires of 2003

• James K. Purpura
• Meteorologist-In-Charge
• NWS, San Diego, Ca

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Description of Fires

• One of the most costly disasters in California
  History
• 2,000,000,000 losses
• 2nd costliest in Ca. history in terms of lives
• 22 killed

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Description of Fires

• 3,600 Homes Destroyed
• Nearly 740,000 Acres Burned
• NWS Property Damaged or Destroyed

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Video of Paradise and Cedar Fires(10/26/03)
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Location Map of Wildfires Fire Starts From
10/21 thru 10/26
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Int 15 N Miramar Way - Note that cars are being
turned around
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The fire moves south down Oak Canyon toward the
52 freeway.
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Aerial view of the fire line along Route 15 near
Miramar Air Station.
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A San Diego police officer backs his car off
Clairemont Mesa Blvd just east of I-15 as the
fire flares up on the north side.
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Fire rages on the east side of the I-15 at
Clairemont Mesa Blvd
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Traffic backed up on I-15 from closures forced by
the wildfires
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Another view of I-15 near Miramar
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The fire line nears a Scripps Ranch development.
These are fairly new 600,000 - 700,000 homes.
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The fire line nears a Scripps Ranch development.
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A large home burns out of control in Ramona
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A typical scene in some of the ranch areas in San
Diego County
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A horse is kept at the Valley View Casino after
being rescued from the fire in Valley Center in
Sunday
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Ventura County firefighters look at a firewhirl
from a wildfire, Sunday, in Simi Valley
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A home burns along North Lake Wohlford Road at
Valley Center Road on Sunday morning
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Timeline for NWS

• First threat of Fire Danger Mentioned on 6 a.m.
  HWO Wed 10/22
• As it appeared threat was imminent, significant
  event briefings were held for staff beginning
  Wed. 10/22
• A Special Weather Statement was issued 1130 am
  Friday to alert the public of the increasing
  threat of fires, especially by Sunday

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Timeline Part 2

• Wind Advisory issued 230 PM Friday
• Through Sat PM
• Mentioned High Wind Warning may be needed Sat
  night and Sunday
• Narrative warned of extreme fire danger in lower
  elevations of the mountains and foothills and
  said winds will be stronger Sunday

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Timeline Part 3

• High Wind Watch issued 930 PM Friday for Saturday
  night and Sunday

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Timeline Part 4

• Red Flag Warning issued 1045 AM Saturdaybelow
  mountain passes and canyons

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Timeline Part 5

• High Wind Warning/Wind Advisory issued 830 AM
• Through 9 PM Sunday
• Cancelled 200 PM Sunday
• Wind Advisory through 2 PM Monday
• CEM issued 200 PM Sunday
• Fire Emergency across north and east portions of
  San Diego Metro area

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Electronic Equipment was adversely affected by
the fires

• Fire burned up to the KNKX radar
• Destroyed data and power lines
• Destruction of trailers at KNKX upper air site
• Destroyed phone and power lines

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Electronics TimelineSunday, 10/26/2003

• ESA received call at home that the KNKX RDA
  wideband line was down.
• ESA attempted to travel to site, saw fire
  surrounding RDA buildings.
• While at the WFO, ESA found that Upper Air
  Facility was at minimum not reachable due to the
  fires.,
• ESA called the Incident Command Post for the
  Cedar Fire and informed them that the Upper Air
  Facility had up to 20 tanks of compressed
  hydrogen stored at the site.

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Monday, 10/27/2003

• Upon arrival at WFO, ESA departed to assess
  damages to RDA and Upper Air Facility.
• Initial assessment of RDA Site was no significant
  damage to the site itself.
• Power was available to the equipment shelters
  thanks to the RDA emergency generator.
• Equipment status was unknown.
• Telecommunications and power lines were destroyed
  by fire.

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Monday, 10/27/2003 (cont.)

• Initial assessment of the Upper Air Facility
  revealed significant damage.
• Contractor and Storage trailers were destroyed
• Inflation building was damaged.
• Hydrogen tanks appeared to be intact

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Tuesday, 10/28/2003

• Began environmental cleanup at Upper Air Facility
• This was where we stored unused and waste oil,
  antifreeze and batteries.
• Site cleanup was completed within 8 hours.

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Tuesday, 10/28/2003 (cont.)

• Image of a wooden power pole that used to provide
  electricity to the RDA

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Tuesday, 10/28/2003

• WFO San Diego MIC and ESA WRH and NWSHQ
  personnel conducted conference call to determine
  a plan of action for the rebuild and restoration
  of the Upper Air facility.
• Initial plans were for NWSHQ to send out and
  install a temporary Radiosonde system
• Temporary facilities including a trailer,
  generator, and portable office building were
  ordered.

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Wednesday, 10/29/2003

• Hydrogen contractor arrived at UAF. Inspection
  of tanks showed no damage. All hydrogen tanks
  were removed from site.
• Site debris cleanup contractor began removal of
  damaged trailers and other equipment.
• ROC personnel en route to San Diego to install
  wireless solution to get data from WSR-88D.
• NWSHQ Upper Air personnel arrived on site to
  begin site assessment and installation of a
  backup UA system.
• Received notification from IMET on Grand Prix
  fire in San Bernardino that power had been
  removed to the Strawberry Peak area for
  firefighter safety.

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Thursday, 10/30/2003

• Began installation of upper air system in
  temporary trailer and using inflation building to
  mount the antennas.
• Began the installation of wireless equipment for
  the WSR-88D system
• Site debris removal completed by end of day.
• Took delivery of generator and got power
  established at the Upper Air facility to the
  temporary trailer and inflation building.

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Friday, 10/31/2003

• ROC Engineers completed installation of wireless
  equipment. Wideband connection established, but
  would drop out periodically.
• Troubleshooting showed that one of the radios was
  possibly failing causing the occasional drop out
  on the link.
• A new radio was ordered and set for delivery on
  Saturday.

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Friday, 10/31/2003 (cont.)

• Upper Air installation of temporary upper air
  system progressing well. System installed and
  being tested, some minor problems with hardware
  were found and repaired.
• First balloon release (non-synoptic) was
  accomplished late Friday afternoon.
• Data from balloon release was hand-carried to WFO
  for entry into AWIPS (No phone line available at
  time!)

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Saturday, 11/01/2003

• ROC Engineers received new radio, installed and
  tested it in the system.
• Found that the wideband was still dropping out,
  worked to improve physical connections between
  all three sites.
• Upper Air Site, found that software loaded on PC
  to collect data from flight was European encoded
  rather than North America encoded.
• NWSHQ personnel bought a new computer locally and
  installed the North America encoded software.
• First synoptic flight using temporary system and
  cellular electronic connection between system and
  SGX AWIPS performed at 00Z, 11/02/2003.

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Sunday, 11/02/2003

• Narrowband radar data again received from KNKX
  RDA.
• Upper Air releases continue on schedule. All
  upper air contract personnel are trained on the
  use of the new equipment and data transfer
  procedures.

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Monday, 11/03/2003

• WFO San Diego ET and WRH SFT traveled to NWR site
  at Strawberry Peak to evaluate system status.
• Found site off-air, with emergency power
  generator not running.
• Troubleshooting generator problem which was
  quickly fixed.
• NWR Transmitter restored to normal operations at
  1130 PST.

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Summary of Equipment Outage and Restoration Times.

• KNKX WSR-88D
• Outage began Sunday, October 26, 2003 at 0900
  PST.
• System restored Partly Operational on Sunday,
  November 2, 2003 at 1300 PST.
• Commercial power restored Friday, November 7,
  2003 at 1000 PST. System fully restored on
  Monday, November 10, 2003 at 1345 PST.
• Total time system down 172 hours.
• NKX Upper Air
• Last normal release Sunday, October 26, 2003
  at 1200Z.
• First official release using W9000 system
  Sunday, November 2, 2003 at 0000Z.
• Total time system down 156 hours. Missed 13
  flights.

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Summary of Equipment Outage and Restoration
Times. (cont.)

• TPSC1 San Bernardino Mountains NOAA Weather
  Radio
• Logged out on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 at 2000
  PST. This time is estimated based on IMET report
  that the power was cut to mountain for
  firefighter safety.
• System restored on Monday, November 3, 2003 at
  1130 PST. Reason for system outage was a failed
  battery on the Emergency Power Generator locate
  at NWR transmitter site.
• Total time system down 111.5 hours.

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The Southern California Wildfires of 2003

• James K. Purpura
• Meteorologist-In-Charge
• NWS, San Diego, Ca

QUESTIONS?
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The Southern California Wildfires of 2003

• James K. Purpura
• Meteorologist-In-Charge
• NWS, San Diego, Ca

Nows here a look at another type of hazardous
weather
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Fallbrook/Temecula, Ca 2/19/05 1720Z
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The Southern California Wildfires of 2003
JIM PURPURA NWS SAN DIEGO 11440 W. Bernardo
Court, Suite 230 San Diego, Ca 92127 858-675-8700
x 222 jim.purpura_at_noaa.gov

• James K. Purpura
• Meteorologist-In-Charge
• NWS, San Diego, Ca