Can Wildfires Burn Down Los Angeles?

We all know of the great fires of history. The Chicago fire, the Great Fire of London– the list goes on; entire cities up in flame.

But can it happen today?
A question that seems overtly relevant in the face of a truly devastating wildfire season for the state of California.

This Season

2017 was a year for the record books.

• The worst year of wildfires in recorded history.
• More than 1,000,000 acres have burned in the state of California alone.
• Thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.
• More than 40 people died in wildfires in 2017

The reason this season was so bad can be blamed on the weather.

• Record precipitation during the 2016-2017 wet season.
• Abundant plant growth.
• Extremely hot and dry summer.
• Dried and dead plants became fuel for the fires
• Powerful Santa Ana winds.

In a recent interview with CalFire, Public Information Officer Scott McLean said, “We really don’t have a season anymore.” In reference to the ongoing fires across Southern California.
Instead, we are seeing wildfires more as a year round event.

This, coupled with growing residential areas, only made matters worse.
California’s population continues to rapidly grow. As individuals and families explore new areas to reside, they are building their homes closer to wildfire-prone areas.

A City on Fire

It’s happened before.

This isn’t the first time wildfires in California have encroached upon highly populated residential areas. In 1961 the Bel-Air fire claimed more than 500 homes, even claiming the residences of some of Hollywood’s elite at the time.
The fire, just over 16,000 acres, was fanned by Santa Ana winds similar to that of this December.

This year we’ve already seen wildfires burn some heavily populated areas. Santa Rosa lost 5% of its homes this year from the devastating wildfires– an area that grew by more than 10% in the past decade.

The 405, a major L.A. throughway that sees some 400,000 cars each day, was shut down because of a nearby wildfire this year.

But Can it Happen?

I set out writing this article to find an answer to the question, but as I researched and wrote– I realized that it doesn’t really matter.

The wildfires in and around L.A. have already forced hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.

In a matter of days we saw one of the worst wildfire outbreaks in Southern California history.

For residents not forced to evacuate, daily life has been drastically impacted.

So as powerful, dry winds continue to fan the flames of the late-season inferno the real question is not if they can burn L.A. but instead, what can we do in the face of ever-threatening wildfires?

It wasn’t just Southern California that saw devastating wildfires. Northern California, Montana, and much of the western U.S. fell victim to one of the worst fire seasons in history.

For WeatherNation — Meteorologist Jeremy LaGoo