WHY HAVE THE FIRES SPREAD SO FAST
A prolonged dry spell combined with strong winds created the “perfect conditions” for the Los Angeles wildfires to rage out of control.
“We see these fires spread when it is hot and dry and windy, and right now all of those conditions are in place in southern California,” Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central, told AFP.
While it is not yet known what started the blazes, “human-caused climate change is intensifying the heat that drives wildfires, increasing temperatures in southern California up to two degrees Celsius since 1895”, Patrick Gonzalez, a climate change scientist at the University of California, Berkeley told AFP.
Experts say it’s too soon to pinpoint exactly how much climate change contributed to the wildfires.
Last year’s El Nino weather system brought heavy rains that fuelled excessive vegetation growth in the first half of 2024.
But the second half of the year was marked by drought across southern California, setting the stage for what scientists call “precipitation whiplash”, another potential hallmark of climate change that turned the region into a tinderbox.
Low humidity – combined with strong, dry Santa Ana winds blowing inland – further parched the already desiccated shrublands.
