Wildfires rage across Los Angeles fueled by Santa Ana winds, drought, and record-low rainfall.
Californians, like Australians, are used to living with fire, but the state's fire season has been getting longer due to climate change, which has also intensified the risks. Recent seasons have been unusually wet due to El Nino conditions, allowing fuel loads to increase. The region, which should be in its wet season, has received only around 6 millimeters of rain since July, its second driest stretch in nearly 150 years.
By the new year, the fuel load in the canyons and ridges surrounding LA had become dangerously combustible. This period is typically followed by powerful and erratic dry gusts known as Santa Ana winds, which strike around Christmas. The Santa Anas blow in from the desert, losing most of their moisture crossing the San Bernardino Mountains, then blast down towards the Pacific coast. They have long affected life along the coast, upending trees and choking crops with desert sands. Combined with this year's drought, the Santa Ana winds became lethal. A brush fire was reported on a mountainside near Pacific Palisades on Tuesday. Firefighters had little hope of containing the blaze fueled by dry scrub and accelerated by the winds. By Wednesday, the Palisades fire had spread rapidly, and others sprang up, including one in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena. Evacuation orders covered some of LA's best-known venues, such as the Hollywood Bowl and TCL Chinese Theatre. Five people were reported killed and over 1000 structures burned, with over 100,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders. Emergency workers are battling multiple major fires in the most difficult conditions. The strong Santa Ana winds are not only driving the fires in unpredictable surges, but have grounded the state's air firefighting fleet. The winds are expected to pose a threat until at least January 14th, with no significant rainfall predicted. Governor Gavin Newsom has canceled a trip to Washington DC to attend former President Jimmy Carter's funeral, declaring the situation in LA remains dangerous and rapidly evolving
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES SANTA ANA WINDS CLIMATE CHANGE DROUGHT EVACUATIONS
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