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That westward shift was one of those quiet things that happened in 1996 whose repercussions would be felt in unexpected ways far into the future.

While that novel chronicled the decline of a Floridian carnival family clinging to family legend and land, her new novel, “The Antidote,” looks westward to the fictional Nebraska town of Uz during the 1930s.

Why wasn’t the westward march of the fire anticipated sooner, and why did so many homes burn without fire crews ever arriving?

I sat facing westward, drinking in the big sky view that stretched all the way to the ocean.

Another possible reason is that the low-pressure system spinning off the coast — where the westward Santa Ana winds are traveling — wobbled a little bit farther to the north than expected, Kittell said.