LJ that’s right, green/live trees won’t burn as quickly as dry, dead trees.
mark
No coincidences.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/08/14/maui-wildfires-top-cop-was-vegas-shooter-incident-commander/
That photo of fir trees is probably from Paradise.
Someone said winds on Maui don’t come from the east. True, tradewinds do not come from the east. But Hurricane Dora was not a trade wind. The channel between Maui and the Big Island is very deep and winds get very heavy there. Once when flying over that channel to the Big Island, the plane kept dropping straight down 100s of feet and people were screaming, crying and praying. I heard the pilot and steward talking to each other after the plane landed in Hilo (I was so relieved to be on solid ground I sat in my seat until the plane was empty) - they said they both thought the plane was going down. The steward said he had flown helicopters in Viet Nam and was never as afraid as on this flight to the Big Island.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/weather/hawaii-weather-tropical-storm-greg-climate/index.html
Dora was an intense Category 4 hurricane as it passed about 700 miles south of Hawaii’s Big Island early last week. At the same time, a strong area of high pressure was located north of the state. The opposing systems created a strong pressure gradient that enhanced high winds as air funneled between them.
Wind gusts last week reached speeds of up to 67 mph on Maui and 82 mph on the Big Island, according to data from the National Weather Service. Even stronger wind gusts likely occurred and were not picked up by limited reporting stations – especially on the west side of Maui, where winds would have become more intense as they descended nearby mountains.