Over the last 30 years, Foehn winds have led to wildfires affecting densely populated areas of the California coast. They're called Diablo winds in the north, and Santa Ana winds in the south.
Paradise firestorm (aka the Camp Fire), Kincade fire (and consequential power shutoffs), the LNU and SCU Lightning Complex fires, the Oakland firestorm of 1991, the 2020 Bobcat Fire and 2009 Station Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains; firestorms in Malibu (Woolsey Fire), the San Fernando Valley (Saddleridge Fire), and in San Diego's East County region (Cedar Fire 2003 and Witch Fire 2007), the list goes on, and on, and on.
It wasn't until embarrassingly late in life that I realized the Diablo/Santa Ana winds, the catalyst for devastating wildfires, the reason for the CA coast's warmest months being October and November, are the same kinds of winds that I had known about since I was young: the Chinook winds in southern Alberta, aka going from -11°C to 6°C in less than three hours. (Note how the wind direction switches from northerly to west-southwest between 09:00-10:00 MST.) The excellent ATSC 113 course page at UBC explains it better than I can.
We can get Foehn winds along coastal sections in the winter, called Squamish winds (Arctic outflow winds). But can summer Foehn winds be experienced in places near the Coast Mountains or Cascades in Oregon, Washington state, and BC? Can cities like Seattle, Yakima, Spokane, Vancouver or Kelowna get something along the lines of Diablo or Santa Ana winds? If not, why?
