UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

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ese winds are created by high-pressure systems that funnel air from the deserts over the mountains and into the Los Angeles basin. Fall rains, which typically mark the end of fire season by soaking potential fuel, were few and far between in 2024. “ e wind speeds were incredibly, incredibly strong, and we had incredibly dry fuel,” Abatzoglou told LAist. “So realistically, this was a perfect storm when it comes to conditions for fire disasters.” According to a study co-authored by Abatzoglou and Management of Complex Systems professors Crystal Kolden and LeRoy Westerling, stretches with insufficient rain are getting longer and were extended by about 25 days between 1979 and 2020. is means a more significant overlap with the months when Santa Ana winds increase. Weather Conditions Climate Professor John Abatzoglou told the San Francisco Chronicle that dry weather heading into the season when the Santa Ana winds pick up made for dangerous conditions.

Researchers have found that fires are also moving more quickly. A study co-authored by Kolden, director of the UC Merced Fire Resilience Center, found that “fast fires,” which thrust embers into the air ahead of rapidly advancing flames, can ignite homes before emergency responders can intervene. Such fires were responsible for nearly 90% of fire-related damages between 2001 and 2020, despite being relatively rare in the United States. e study found a 250% increase in the average maximum growth rate of the fastest fires over the past two decades in the western United States. Researchers found that land management and building practices have exacerbated the risks. Kolden pointed out to the Los Angeles Times that swaths of the Santa Monica Mountains were ranched until the 1960s. State parks later established on those areas meant cattle no longer grazed on shrubs, a practice that controlled highly flammable brush. “We’ve created this situation,” Westerling told the San Jose Mercury News following a wildfire near his (Continued on page 25)

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