2008 forest fires in the northern California, USA

Worst forest fires for northern California occurred in June 2008. Unprecedented dry storm attacked and tremendous number of lightning ignited more than 800 forest and wildland fires. This preliminary report describes weather condition of dry storm day based on analysis results of weather data including lightning, an image from NASA satellite “Tera”, and hotspot information from NASA system. Field research was also carried out to explain reason for active forest fires after ignition. Discussion on “historical” dry storm was made using weather maps for ground and high altitude (500hPa), vertical air temperature profile by considering a weather report issued from NOAA.