Earthquake Weather
About a week ago, we experienced crazy hot weather here in So Cal. Getting over 100 degrees in the coastal areas is a rarity, but we had that for nearly a straight week. Oddly enough, sometimes September can be hotter than August, at least at the start of it.
It’s not a thing.
When it gets super hot here, people often call it earthquake weather. There is actually no scientific evidence of such a thing, but last week, when it was really hot, I was lying in bed one-morning checking emails and possibly looking at TikTok, and we had an earthquake. It was over so fast that I didn’t even have time to get out of bed. I have a habit of yelling ‘earthquake’ when we have one, even if I am home alone. It was a rolling one instead of a jolt and lasted about five seconds. The epicenter was in Malibu, about an hour away, and was a 5.2, which is a respectable magnitude on the Richter Scale.
According to the US Geological Survey: “In the 4th Century B.C., Aristotle proposed earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. Small tremors were thought to have been caused by air pushing on the cavern roofs and large ones by the air breaking the surface. This theory led to a belief in earthquake weather, that because a large amount of air was trapped underground, the weather would be hot and calm before an earthquake.”
Even though ‘earthquake weather’ isn’t a real thing, it’s real enough that several musical artists like Beck and some guy named Joe Strummer and a band called Dirty Heads have songs and albums named after it. Statistically, there is an approximately equal distribution of earthquakes in cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, etc. But the notion persists.
The Airport Fire
When ‘earthquake weather’ appears, our biggest challenge is that we have many acres of uninhabited land in California, much of which is protected. We will have a fair amount of winter rain and nothing for seven or eight months, leaving us with lots of dry brush from the winter growth. The dry wind and excessive heat turn into other challenges. So last week, we had three really big fires break out in Southern California during the heat wave. One was about five miles from us and is still burning.
Our fires get names here, just like hurricanes. Instead of alphabetical, they are usually named for a nearby landmark. The one close to us is called the Airport Fire because it started near a small airfield in south Orange County. As of Monday, it is still only about 31% contained and has burned over 23,000 acres. About 115 homes in remote areas have been lost. It has moved over the hills away from us and has stretched from Orange County into Riverside County.
You may wonder why it is so hard to control them. A fire chief described it this way: “This fire is about a mile in front of itself.” That means that the wind carried embers as far as a mile ahead of the fire, making it very hard to get on top of and control it. It just keeps growing bigger and bigger. Our California firefighters definitely earn their keep.
Thankfully, the weather has cooled significantly, and the humidity is pretty high with very little wind. Ironically, this fire was started by city workers using heavy equipment moving boulders to keep hikers out of high-burn areas. One tiny spark set it off. It was so dry, hot, and windy that they could not contain it before it raged out of control.
There's no reason for alarm, well, maybe.
My daughter works with a young woman who recently moved to California. When the fire started, she freaked out. As expected, her coworkers, most of whom have grown up here, reassured her. They told her what to do to prepare. We know to have a ‘go bag’, have some cash on hand, and never let your car get below ¼ tank of gas. If you live in a high-risk fire area, keep the brush cleared around your home. Pay attention to the news, and when the firefighters tell you to evacuate, you do it. Consider what you will take if you have to evacuate, which should not include anything replaceable. We know what to do, and we are prepared.
Why all the disaster talk?
You must wonder why I am waxing on about our California natural and man-made disasters. It’s simple. We humans know how to adapt. Some do it better than others. Some people can figure out a situation with common sense and actionable items. Others react with hysteria. Others just hope it will go away and ignore it. That is what we have right now in real estate and relocation. We should all be on high alert. Some people and companies take the lead, while others sit back, watching and waiting. I’m not making light of these disasters, but you see the similarities. Thankfully, no one ever died of real estate.
While we haven’t had time to completely desensitize to what is happening in our industry, when we look back a couple of years from now, we will wonder what we got so worked up about. It is time to embrace the changes and adapt. Anticipating what might happen is the best way to prepare, even if it means exploring the worst-case scenarios before it’s earthquake weather.
“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” ~ Frederick Douglass, an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. It is interpreted that this quote suggests that mere warmth or comfort is not enough to inspire change or progress.
The Airport Fire.