2025 Los Angeles Wildfires: is the worst still to come?
During a field trip, some colleagues from UC Berkeley watched the Palisades Fire getting started
yesterday morning around 10:30am (Photo: Palisades fire viewed from Sepulveda dam, Los Angeles on
January 07, 2025 / Matt Kondolf).
As the LA wildfires are pushed by intense Santa Ana winds and tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate, this episode reminds us of the winter Thomas Fire (2017-2018) and subsequent post-fire debris flow that devastated the community of Montecito in January 2018. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1183324/full) Tomorrow is the 6th anniversary.
Fires can intensify the magnitude of flooding by creating a hydrophobic layer in the soil that reduces infiltration. Floods after fires are common in California. However, climate change is increasing the frequency and magnitude of such events in California, especially as the fire and rain season are now overlapping. But even more important: increased exposure in hazard zones increases the losses from such compound hazards.
In September 2023, I was invited to give the policy brief "From Epic Fires to Epic Floods: Safety and Financial Implications for California" (https://uccs.ucdavis.edu/events/from-epic-fires-to-epic-floods-safety- and-financial-implications-for-california) at the UC Center Sacramento to discuss current challenges with members of the California Assembly. These events highlight once more the urgency to rethink our hazards policy and planning tools.