Around 1,500 buildings were destroyed and more than 100,000 residents of the American megalopolis were forced to flee in the face of flames, fanned by strong winds on very dry vegetation. In the light of climate change, California is increasingly vulnerable to fires.
Such scenes seem exceptional in the middle of winter. Three violent fires have been ravaging the Los Angeles region, in the United States, for several days. This Thursday, January 9, a provisional report shows five deaths. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the situation “unprecedented.”
Even in a region accustomed to vegetation fires, especially during the summer period, the violence of the flames and the speed of their spread surprise the authorities and the emergency services. It was a cocktail of favorable conditions that helped fuel these fires.
Los Angeles is being swept by “hurricane-force winds combined with extreme drought conditions,” summarized Mayor Karen Bass.
The powerful winds of “Santa Ana”
The flames are moving at lightning speed, spread by winds which have reached nearly 130 km/h and sometimes even more than 160 km/h in certain hilly or mountainous areas. These are what Californians call the Santa Ana winds.
These winds occur during the cooler months, usually from late September to mid-May, and cause strong, dry gusts that blow from the vast western interior desert of the United States to southern California, explains The Guardian, as opposed to the usual humid air that comes from the Pacific Ocean.
Santa Ana winds cross desert areas in parts of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and southeastern Oregon and heat up there. When they reach California, they help dry out the vegetation, which thus becomes more vulnerable to flames. The gusts can then sometimes carry the embers several kilometers.
Additionally, these strong winds can also cause utility poles to fall, which can start fires, although the cause of the ones currently ravaging Los Angeles remains to be determined.
“We don’t have enough firefighters”
Gusty winds also make it more difficult for rescue teams to intervene to put out the flames. “Even if the plane can fly, the strong winds affect the release of retardant and water,” explains Jess Torres, battalion chief of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, for example, to the New York Times.
Faced with the spread of the flames, the work of the emergency services is colossal. “We don’t have enough firefighters in Los Angeles County to deal with this situation,” lamented Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone this Wednesday morning.
“More than 7,500” fire fighters, sometimes from other American states, are leading the fight against these “unprecedented fires in Los Angeles,” the governor of California said on Wednesday.
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On social networks, voices are also being raised to protest against a possible lack of water in several fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades neighborhoods, reports the Los Angeles Times. According to the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, all water storage tanks in the area “were dry” decreasing the flow of water from the hydrants fires located at higher altitudes. Californians have been urged by authorities to save water.
President-elect Donald Trump spread false information on his Truth Social network, claiming that California is running out of water because of Democratic environmental policies that would divert rainwater to protect a “useless fish.” In reality, most of the water used by Los Angeles comes from the Colorado River, and is used primarily by the agricultural industry, recalls AFP.
An unprecedented drought
In addition to Santa Ana winds drying out vegetation, the Los Angeles area experienced an exceptionally dry winter. In 2022 and 2023, the winter periods were, conversely, particularly wet, causing significant vegetation growth.
This year, much of Southern California was hit by drought again. From July 1 to January 5, only four millimeters of water fell on central Los Angeles, far from seasonal norms.
Although the northern part of the state has received plenty of rain this winter, there is a “remarkable” split in precipitation in California, according to AP climatologist Daniel Swain, with parts of the south experiencing their driest periods in more than 150 years old.
This combination of very low humidity, coupled with strong, dry winds which swept the land, fanned the flames on abundant vegetation.
The impact of climate change
This cocktail of conditions conducive to the development of fires is also reinforced by the global climate crisis which makes forest fires more frequent and devastating. The overall rise in temperatures linked in particular to the exploitation and use of fossil fuels is leading to an increase in the days of “meteorological conditions conducive to fires”.
Scientists estimate that climate change increases the risk of rapid fires in California by around 25%, reports The Guardian. Ten of the largest wildfires in the state have occurred in the past two decades, including five in 2020 alone.
Human-caused climate change has contributed to a 172% increase in burned areas in California since the 1970s, with further spread expected in coming decades. As the intensity of the current fires shows, the wildland fire season is lengthening.
For firefighters and authorities, the fight against these flames is far from over. According to weather forecasts, the red alert for strong winds is maintained until at least Friday.
