Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Real Cause of the Maui Wildfire Disaster
- It was not due to climate change
- It was not due to Hurricane Dora, as widely reported
- It was not due to a drought
- It was due to a mountain wave down slope wind event
- The extremely dry air quickly dried out vegetation (it would not matter, he says, that they could have been wet days before)
- Incredibly, west Maui has no official wind measurement systems
- The event was “highly predictable” with modern weather systems
- Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Origin of the Hawaii Fires/Preventing a Similar Tragedy in the Future
- Since the cause was not climate but local weather conditions, non-native grasses, and a failed electrical system (most likely), fighting climate change will not prevent this type of fire on Maui in the future. Lessons from the Camp Fire at Paradise, CA were totally ignored by Hawaii Electric.
The other possibility, as we learn more about Maui’s officials and their (in) actions, it could be that climate change causes government incompetence. We need to consider that too!
West Maui has no wind monitoring system, Maui failed to release water resources in a timely manner, failed to use its disaster alert siren system, the electric utility failed to harden its systems and failed to consider turning off electricity even though it was aware that was a potential solution – the NWS had issued a fire weather warning days in advance – and everyone ignored it.
