3 ms·
Doesn't it need to get up to 300°C (the flash point of wood) for things to spontaneously combust from the ambient temperature? I agree with you that hot and dr
by geofft 6y ago
Doesn't it need to get up to 300°C (the flash point of wood) for things to spontaneously combust from the ambient temperature?
I agree with you that hot and dry conditions make wildfires much easier to start and spread, but that's been having an effect in residential parts of California over the last few weeks, where the temperature has at most been around 100-110°F (38°-43°C).
(And I do agree that, metres from a moving fire, the temperature is probably past the flash point of many substances, but I wouldn't call that climate, I think.)
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoI'm not making this up. Heat from the fire reached 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), with speeds up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_Peninsula_bushfire,_2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_Peninsula_bushfire,_2005
- driverdan 6y ago> The source of ignition was subsequently found to have been a vehicle parked in grass on the roadside.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoSorry, "spontaneously combust" was probably the wrong term. I just meant material will catch fire from the radiant heat alone, well before the fire actually gets there.
- dwd 6y agoRather than spontaneously combusting; in a large bushfire that is generating firestorms, the pressure differential can cause nearby houses to literally explode. My late uncle who was at the Mt Macedon fires during Ash Wednesday told the story of getting trapped by the fire and sheltering with another firefighter in a house that was ripped apart around them - they ended up sheltering in a concrete toilet block as the fire raged past. These type of fires create their own weather.
- nl 6y agoI don't think (hope!) the OP isn't claiming spontaneous combustion. I'm in Australia (Adelaide) too and the bushfire threat is real, but it's because when it's super hot any spark in dry eucalyptus leaves takes off extremely quickly.