Deadly Fire Catastrophe Grows Worse, And East Coast Storm

Flaming palm trees around a California mansion during this
past week's wildfires. Photo byh David McNew/Getty Images 

Just as I feared the death toll from the California wildfires has increased exponentially, with a confirmed death toll in the northern part of the state up to 23.  

The so-called camp fire raced through the town of Paradise Thursday and moved on into other towns, including parts of the larger city of Chico, population about 90,000.

Up to 90 percent of the town of Paradise was erased, making this, as I noted yesterday, the most destructive wildfire in California history.

CalFire says 6,453 homes and 260 commercial buildings were destroyed in the Camp Fire. Another 15,000 or so are threatened .

This fire is now 20 percent contained, which I suppose is an improvement.  But winds are expected to get wicked strong in northern  California today, and the humidity remains ridiculously low. That could cause the Camp Fire to roar through more communities, or other fast moving fires could start.

It would be very nice if the normal November rains started to move into northern California, but that's not expected for at least the next seven days. 

If anything, conditions are even worse in southern  California. The Woosley fire has destroyed 150 structures which is bad, but not nearly as terrible as northern California. Judging from some of the videos I've seen, I'm astonished by the skill of firefighters who saved many more houses in this fire.

Still, this fire has reportedly killed two people.

Even worse, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center says extremely critical fire conditions are expected today and tomorrow in southern California, This includes winds up to 60 mph and a relative humidity around 5 percent.

All that could easily send existing fires spiraling rapidly out of control and storming through residential neighborhoods. There's also the high potential of new explosive fires developing.

So yeah, this is bad, really bad.

EAST COAST STORM TROUBLE

I almost hate to mention the potential for storminess in the eastern United States, because the danger pales in comparison to California, but it must be mentioned.

Almost all of the nation is colder than normal today. Only parts
 of Florida (in shades of orange) are warmer than average.

Pretty amazingly, all of the Lower 48 is having colder than normal weather today except the immediate West Coast and the southern half of Florida.

Snow is scattered about, too, with winter storm warnings as far south as the Texas panhandle.

For us up here in Vermont, it's a wintry day. The sun is peeking out, but temperatures are staying below freezing. I can the soil freezing in my gardens.

It's about to get even worse.  We remain in a very wet weather pattern, but now it's an even colder one than earlier this month. A storm is expected to get going early Tuesday morning in the Southeast, then rocket northeastward to New England by later in the day Tuesday.

Once again, here in Vermont, we will be right on the edge of snow versus rain. It all depends on the exact track of the storm, which is hard to determine now. A little bit further west than expected, it will be mostly rain. A little east, more snow.

The general consensus is snow will be more widespread in Vermont with this one than the one that went through Friday and Friday night. I think even the Champlain Valley might get into the act, and the Tuesday morning commute has the potential to be, um, interesting.

It might not be all snow. In the valleys, things could go back and forth between a cold rain and wet snow. The mountains look to get another nice installment of snow for those winter sports enthusiasts.

As noted, the storm will race by and be out of our hair by Wednesday. But it will be very cold, so any snow that falls will stick around for awhile. Plus, now we're looking at the potential for another cold nor'easter next Friday. It's not guaranteed yet, but the risk is there.