Wildfire — Southern Sacramento Valley, California
2020-08-17 to 2020-08-31 · Southern Sacramento Valley, California
Event narrative
CalFire reported a total of 5 fatalities for the LNU Complex, 2 of which occurred in Solano County which is in Sacramento's county warning area and 3 in Napa County which is in Monterey's county warning area. The first death recorded is of a man who chose not to evacuate his home in rural Vacaville. Officials completed a subsequent check on the man and found him deceased.
Wider weather episode
During mid August, moisture from tropical storm Fausto moved along the coast of southern CA and made landfall over central and northern California. This system, combined with the an oppressive high pressure system that had predominately dry air, caused widespread dry thunderstorms to develop. Thousands of lightning strikes occurred overnight, which combined with the critical dry fuels, led to massive wildfire development. The August, the North, the LNU, and SCU Complexes all started between August 15 and 17.
The August Complex is still ongoing as of October 29, is the largest fire in California history, and is spread across the county warning areas of weather forecast offices Sacramento and Eureka. One fatality and injury occurred on August 27 at the August Complex due to a vehicular accident, many structures were destroyed or damaged.
The LNU and SCU complexes are mainly within the county warning area of weather forecast office Monterey; however, both fires spread into Sacramento's forecast area.
The LNU Complex caused significant damage in Solano County, including 2 fatalities, the evacuation of Vacaville and Fairfield, and the closure of I-80. Yolo County was also affected by the fires and had evacuations and road closures. 3 Fatalities occurred in Napa County. It has been difficult to find detailed data, but there were 5 injuries that occurred, 4 civilian and 1 first responded. The LNU Complex finally becomes fully extinguished by October 1, 2020.
The SCU Complex covered large swaths of land over Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Merced, and Stanislaus counties. Per the last CalFire incident update, 6 injuries occurred, 4 were first responder and 2 were civilian. The fires burned caused significant damage over the area. The SCU Complex finally becomes fully contained on October 1, 2020.
Finally, the North Complex was also started by lightning on August 17 at 8AM PST. It is still on going at the time of this preparation. Fire activity occurred for the month of August, but extreme grow of this fire would not happen until September.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 919148. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.