HOUSTON – It’s hard to miss the heartbreaking footage of the devastation in Southern California. If you’re like me, you probably know someone who lives near those fires, it feels so personal when you do.
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The photo above is a photo of me, geared up and ready for wildfire coverage. During my six and a half years working at the NBC station out there, I spent a lot of time forecasting Santa Ana Winds and covering countless wildfires. It’s an experience I’ll never forget, and I wanted to share a few thoughts, especially for those of us who’ve always called Texas home.
The photo below is from the Woolsey Fire back in November 2018. It was the last major fire to hit Malibu, and being there to witness it firsthand, was a powerful experience.
Would you rather deal with wildfires or hurricanes?
In the past, I asked this question, would you rather live in a place with earthquakes or hurricanes?
The answers I’ve heard always seem to depend on where people are from. Texans usually say hurricanes because you get time to prepare. Californians? They tend to pick earthquakes because they just happen, with no buildup, and no worrying. But I wonder if they’d feel the same way about wildfires.
The photo below is fascinating and sobering at the same time. It’s a visible satellite image from space showing the Palisades Fire at 12:45 p.m. Central Time on January 7, not long after it started. Look at how the strong offshore winds are steering the smoke in a razor-thin column out to sea. It’s incredible, and also a stark reminder of how quickly things can escalate.
The weather setup:
As a meteorologist, there are times when you just know something bad is coming. You can see it building; sometimes months in advance.
Southern California has a very distinct pattern: a rainy season and a dry season. Unlike Houston, where heavy rain can show up any time of year, Los Angeles gets six months of rain followed by six months of dry weather.
The start of 2024 was incredibly stormy, with heavy snow and rain that soaked the state. It led to a beautiful spring bloom; everything was green and thriving. But here’s the problem: by October, Southern California should’ve started getting rain again. This year, it didn’t. Not a drop.
The past fall and winter turned out to be the second driest on record, with only .16″ of rain since May. All that lush spring growth? It dried up and became fuel. That’s when, as a meteorologist, you can’t help but think, “Oh no, this is going to be bad.”
Santa Ana Winds:
Santa Ana Winds are as routine in Southern California as a sea breeze is here in Houston. But sometimes, they pack a much stronger punch, and the ones this week were intense!
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Usually, the setup involves high-pressure sitting to California’s northeast, bringing those dry, offshore winds. But this time, there was a twist: an area of low pressure over Mexico. That low cranked up the winds even more, and the canyons in the mountains acted like wind tunnels, pushing gusts to a staggering 80 to 100 mph as they rushed toward the coast.
It’s at moments like that where you can’t help but hold your breath and pray no spark starts a fire. But this time, there was.
If you’ve never been near a wildfire:
The power, speed, and sheer scale of an active wildfire is something you can’t fully grasp until you see it in person. When a large fire stretches from the mountains down to the valley, the view is surreal, almost like a scene out of a movie.
The closest a fire ever got to my home in Burbank was the La Tuna Fire, named after the La Tuna Canyon where it started. Three memories from that fire will always stay with me. The first is standing outside and seeing the mountain in front of me completely covered in thick smoke. It was overwhelming.
The second was the view from my job at NBC that night. The Verdugo Mountains had this eerie orange glow, with flames twisting and swirling like a spinning ballerina. It was both beautiful and terrifying.
And the last memory? I woke up the next morning to ash everywhere. It covered the ground, and the cars, as well as the weight of the ash, sunk to the bottom of our pool. Oh, and wildfire smoke isn’t just a nuisance; it’s incredibly dangerous to breathe in.
Can anything be done to prevent wildfires or lessen their impact?
I wanted to share a video I made back when I was working in Los Angeles. It’s about climate change, controlled burns, and how wildfires ignite and spread.
Living and working in Southern California, I saw firsthand how wildfires have evolved over the years. They’re not just more frequent, they’re bigger, faster, and far more destructive.
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Climate change plays a significant role. Warmer temperatures dry out vegetation faster, turning it into perfect fuel for fires, and long periods of drought only add to the problem. But climate change isn’t the whole story.
Land management and controlled burns are also a big part of the equation, but they’re incredibly complicated with no easy or immediate solutions.
And then there’s the question of how these fires start. Most are caused by human activity, power lines, arson, or something as small as a spark from a car. Interestingly, very few are caused by lightning anymore. 50 years ago, lightning was the leading cause of wildfires, but today, it’s a distant second to human activity.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic! Feel free to email me at ayanez@kprc.com or reach out on Facebook, Instagram, or X. I’ll be out early next week, so my next newsletter will land in your inbox on Friday, January 17th.
