Computer models failing to predict path of devastating California wildfires

Wildfires that have overwhelmed firefighters in California this summer are stumping computer models designed to predict where they’ll burn.

CalFire Director Ken Pimlott said Monday that fires are exceeding what models will predict during the drought.

A U.S. Forest Service manager says fires have expanded faster and that’s one factor that could be making modeling harder.

It’s not clear if modeling would have predicted the rapid growth of a blaze in Lake County that torched more than 60 square miles in 12 hours, destroyed nearly 600 homes and killed a woman last weekend.

But Pimlott says CalFire ran models hundreds of times that couldn’t replicate the rapid growth of a fire in the same area in late July. That fire destroyed 43 homes and spread over 100 square miles.