After burning for a total of 40 days, the Thomas Fire in southern California is now fully contained. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, commonly referred to as CAL FIRE, released the news via a Tweet on Friday morning.
#ThomasFire [final] north of Santa Paula (Ventura and Santa Barbara County) per @LosPadresNF is now 100% contained at 281,893 acres. https://t.co/y0Mk3zmzH8 pic.twitter.com/6LyjWKpcAy
— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) January 12, 2018
The Thomas Fire began on December 4, 2017 and by December 23 it had eclipsed all other wildfires in California history as the largest on record.
The weather was very unfavorable for this fire, and others in the area too. Strong, down-sloping winds gusted between 60 and 80 miles per hour as a strong, high pressure stayed in control and kept the area unseasonably dry. Here are the final numbers regarding the fire.
The recent heavy rain event in southern California helped put the final extinguish to this fire. However it also made the heavy rain flow down the hillsides even faster, in what forecasters warned of flooding over the burn scar areas. Gratitude is extended to the fire fighters and first responders who helped with both events, the wildfires and mudslide/flooding in California over the past couple of months. Below you’ll find a slideshow of pictures from the Thomas Fire when it was very active.
For WeatherNation, Meteorologist Steve Glazier