The Meteorology of the November 2018 Camp Fire

On November 8, 2018, strong easterly and northeasterly winds initiated a wildfire under power lines to the northeast of Paradise, California that subsequently moved rapidly into town. Over the next few days, the fire burned 153,000 acres, destroyed nearly 20,000 structures, killed 86 people, and resulted in approximately 17 billion dollars in total loss, making it the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history. This talk will describe the synoptic and mesoscale evolution of this event, as well as its climatological backdrop. A realistic high-resolution simulation of the event will be presented and analyzed, and the mesoscale dynamics of the accompanying downslope flow will be discussed. Finally, the skill of operational numerical guidance for the event will be evaluated