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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Earth Wind & Fire


California's climate is often compared to that of the Mediterranean, due to warm, dry summers, and mild, wet winters. On the coast, average yearly temperatures range between the low 40s°F  and in the high 70s°F and 80s°F. Farther inland, summers are hot and dry, and at higher altitudes the weather is more typical of a four-seasons cycle with cold, snowy winters. The contrast is clear in the state’s two largest cities, where you’ll find very different weather patterns. San Francisco is famous for its fog, especially in the summer, and Los Angeles is known for its consistently sunny, desert-like, coastal climate.

Locals jokingly refer to the “four seasons” of California as fire, mudslides, earthquakes, and drought.  Fire season is year-round in Southern California, but it peaks from April or May to October or November, and sometimes through January. Every fire season is different.
volanoes can happen in California Many people living throughout much of the continental United States may not be too concerned about a wall of mud, water, and debris swallowing up their homes and potentially endangering their lives, but those living near wildfire burn areas in regions such as Southern California may tell another story.

In the United States, approximately 25 to 50 deaths a year can be attributed to the phenomenon of debris flow, or mudslides as they are more commonly known, with monetary losses exceeding $2 billion annually.

These gravity-driven mixtures of sediment, water, and other dislodged objects are caused by heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt, and weakened terrain, creating a deadly slurry of dislodged rocks, soil, and trees. These ingredients combine to resemble a wet concrete-like mass that can develop tremendous downhill force and leave a path of destruction in its wake.
Sporadic fires are normal throughout California in the summer and fall as temperatures rise and rainfall drops, causing vegetation to die off and provide fuel for combustion. In Southern California, the normal wildfire season begins in October with the arrival of the infamous Santa Ana winds, and it is unusual to see fires spread rapidly at other times of year. During the height of California wildfires public health officials recommend that outdoor activities should be limited and people with respiratory conditions remain inside.

Named after Southern California's Santa Ana Canyon and a fixture of local legend and literature, the Santa Ana is a blustery, dry and warm (often hot) wind that blows out of the desert. Local legends associate the hot, dry winds with homicides and earthquakes, but these are myths.
earthquakes shake buildings in California Santa Ana winds are usually dry winds, which further exacerbates the potential danger of wildfires. As the air descends and warms due to compression, its relative humidity decreases. Relative humidity can drop below 10% during a Santa Ana wind event. Because of the low relative humidity, this hot, fast-moving air can literally strip already dry vegetation of whatever little moisture it may have, further increasing fire danger. The wind also picks up dust, and during Santa Ana wind events, dust plumes carried by strong offshore winds can be seen over the ocean from space.

When a high pressure system develops over the Great Basin to the north and east of Southern California, prevailing winds push the air in a clockwise direction around the high pressure. Santa Ana winds are caused by this phenomenon, especially when lower pressure to the west actually pulls the air across Southern California in strong offshore winds.
An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground caused by the sudden release of energy stored in the rocks below the surface, radiating from a fault along which movement has just taken place. Earthquakes can occur at any time of the year and at any time of the day or night. Earthquakes occur under all weather conditions, sunny, wet, hot, or cold--without special tendency.

The largest recorded earthquake in California was the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 8.0. This earthquake ruptured the San Andreas Fault from Parkfield to Wrightwood, a distance of 225 miles

The most destructive earthquake to date was the 7.9 magnitude 1906 San Francisco earthquake, in which over 3000 people perished in the earthquake and the fires that followed. The 1906 quake ruptured the northern segment of the San Andreas Fault for 296 miles, from San Juan Bautista to near Cape Mendocino in the north.
 
 
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