Dying winds and mild temperatures helped firefighters control the wildfires that began raging across southern California last weekend. By this morning, Thursday, November 20, two of the three fires are fully contained and the third, already reduced to a slow-moving, smoldering ground fire, is 95% contained.

Hurricane Ike was the third hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. this year, preceded by Hurricane Dolly in late July and Gustav just two weeks prior to Ike. While Ike’s intensity at landfall was comparable to Gustav (both estimated at sustained winds of 110 mph by the National Hurricane Center), it was a much larger storm with a larger radius of hurricane force winds. In addition, the Texas coastal exposure directly subjected to storm surge from Ike was more concentrated than in Louisiana where Gustav made landfall, despite Louisiana’s generally lower elevation.

Hurricane Paloma made landfall near Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba, at 7:00 EST on Saturday, November 8, as a Category 3 hurricane. Maximum sustained winds at landfall were 120 mph.