[Pelham]

70 mph winds. The fires erupted after midnight and spread at 70. I heard one guy say that smoke woke him and he stepped outside to find everything in sight on fire. He thought that North Korea had hit them with a nuke. He couldn’t imagine that a wild fire could have done it.

People who made it out barely had time to get their cars going. Some grabbed neighbors and pulled them into their cars and saved them. I think the death toll is going to be large.

[palmer]

Some winds were up to 70 on the hills. I assume there was more wind aloft over the valleys and embers that went up in hot fires got pushed forward in those higher winds. But I didn't see a lot of high winds in the daily report. Highest winds were 25-35 and highest gusts about 10 above that. That's still a lot of wind for a low humidity situation.

But an ember generating fire can torch a neighborhood with 20 mph winds if nobody is available to fight the fire. It would be a slower advance, but embers will advance at those wind speeds.