The recent extreme heat and drought in Southern California have certainly contributed to the three major wildfires raging in Southern California, but how did they start so quickly? fast?

Two things: gusts of wind and inland currents.

“The inland flow increased and the winds came off the ocean, causing the fire to quickly spread into Southern California,” explained Dr. Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The current on land caused the fires to grow in size last.

“The fire is being pushed inward and as the fire gets bigger and grows, the fire that’s ahead of the fire starts to consume fuel and burn vegetation, pulling wind from the other side,” said Jed Gaines, chief of the Cal Fire Battalion.

The fire on the bridge spread to over 19,000 hectares on Wednesday and for some residents the windy conditions were almost impossible to ignore.

“The wind … I don’t know if it’s from the fire, but the wind … it was really gusty,” said Wrightwood resident Christine Johnson. “It was scary. If you went to the other side of town, it wasn’t like that.”

As fires grow stronger, they develop into independent weather systems that produce their own clouds and sometimes even thunderstorms.

“If the fire gets big enough, it essentially turns into a heat engine. It can then interact with the environmental conditions and even change them so that it behaves like a thunderstorm,” Cohen said.

Although there was not enough moisture to produce a thunderstorm, the strong winds and terrain allowed the three fires to create dangerous fuel and grow quickly.

“When we look at these pictures of what looks like a thunderstorm, that is a sign that we have a very dangerous explosive fire,” Cohen said.

California is only in the middle of its wildfire season, but it has already burned nearly three times as much land as it will in all of 2023. The White House said President Joe Biden is monitoring wildfires in the West and urging residents to follow state and local evacuation orders.

Lower temperatures were expected to dampen fire activity as the week progressed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.