2024 was the hottest year ever recorded. With these warming temperatures, scientists now warn that disastrous floods, hurricanes, and fires as the result of man-made climate change will begin to rise up around the world. Tuesday January 7, some of the most destructive fires in United States (US) history struck the nation’s second-largest city, Los Angeles. While fires are not unusual in the state of California, fire season is now overlapping with the Santa Ana wind season, bringing unprecedented destruction, according to The New York Times. While scientists and officials have not yet determined the immediate spark of the fires demolishing the West Coast, it is evident that global warming has allowed the fires to spread more rapidly and has made trees and shrubbery more vulnerable to the flames, according to bbc.com.
At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday January 7, residents in Pacific Palisades, California called 9-1-1 to report a bushfire. As strong winds from the South intensified, the fire then swept through the Highlands, the rest of Palisades, and westward toward Malibu, becoming one of the worst in the nation’s history, according to nbcnews.com. Since Tuesday, fires have also broken out in other Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Eaton, Kenneth, and Hurst, according to The New York Times. As a result, at least 24 individuals have died from the fires, and officials have ordered hundreds of thousands to evacuate from their homes. In addition, the flames have destroyed thousands of structures across Los Angeles, according to The New York Times. In fact, the National Weather Service has described the fires as a “particularly dangerous situation,” which is a newer alert title that officials only intend to use once every five or so years, according to The New York Times.
The biggest obstacle responders are facing to try to stop these fires from spreading are the hurricane strength winds. Los Angeles residents refer to the months of September through May as wind season, where the Santa Ana winds sweep up from the desert regions toward the Pacific Ocean. During these months, the strong winds may exceed gusts of up to 70 miles per hour, according to npr.org.
January is not typically fire season in Southern California. However, the planet’s increasing heat is extending the fire season due to dry weather conditions, causing fire season to overlap with wind season, according to latimes.com. Dr. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at The University of California, Los Angeles, commented on why the earth’s increased heat has sparked the expansion of fire season.
“Climate change has already brought hotter and drier fire seasons to Southern California that increasingly extend into the winter months,” Dr. Swain said, according to latimes.com. “This is particularly problematic because strong offshore winds often occur in late autumn and winter in this part of the world. When such strong winds overlap with extremely dry vegetation conditions, as is the case at present, very dangerous wildfire conditions can develop.”
The last two winters have left California vegetation vulnerable to ignition. The abnormally damp winters of 2023 and 2024 allowed the trees and shrubbery in Southern California to grow and nourish. However, following these periods of wetness came extreme drought and long stretches without rain. This drastic “whiplash” in weather left vegetation unprotected from the combination of wildfires and strong winds, according to latimes.com.
In the last ten years, fires across the West Coast have become increasingly more dangerous and destructive. Interestingly, the ten hottest years of world record have also fallen within the last decade. This correlation suggests that the planet’s heat is a direct instigator of these climate disasters. In fact, last year, there was a record number of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Scientists warn that if these numbers do not plummet, more disasters, like the Los Angeles fires, will break out around the world, according to The New York Times.
Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25
