As Santa Ana winds are expected to return from Monday into Tuesday, the wildfire situation in Southern California, especially around Los Angeles, remains critical, with increased risks for fire spread amid the ongoing Palisades and Eaton fires. After a brief respite allowing for some containment, the resurgence of gusty winds could challenge firefighting efforts, necessitating heightened vigilance and preparedness in affected areas.

Nearly 10 million people in southern California are under red flag warnings due to severe fire weather conditions, with alerts affecting much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and extending south to the Mexico border. Santa Ana winds are set to intensify starting Saturday evening, with gusts anticipated to reach 50 to 70 mph, particularly in mountainous areas, and the strongest winds are expected to peak again late Monday into Tuesday.

BBC: Officials in Los Angeles say at least 16 people have died since wildfires started on Tuesday.

As the Palisades fire continues to threaten several Los Angeles communities, including Brentwood, Encino, Bel Air, Sherman Oaks, and West Los Angeles, firefighting efforts are intensifying, particularly on the eastern flank where flames are growing. The situation has become critical in Malibu, where the mayor reported that a third of the city’s eastern edge has already been lost to the blaze.

Strong, gusty winds and ongoing dryness will exacerbate the spread of wildfires, posing a significant threat to areas that have not yet experienced severe blazes, such as Anaheim, Temecula, San Bernardino, and Big Bear Lake.

Size and containment of the major fires

Variety: “This is not going to go away tomorrow,” says Debbie Levin, who has served as the CEO of the Environmental Media Association for 25 years. “We’re still going to have climate change. We’ve had an industrial world since the early 1900s, so this has been going on for 100-plus years into our atmosphere, and we’re dealing with it now. For some reason, there’s still a blindness when it comes to the questions of how local communities need to deal with it.”

Wildfires are a natural and even necessary part of the region’s desert ecosystem. The pain and suffering for humans is magnified by more than a century of expanded residential development in areas that are prone to fire, mudslides, drought as well as unpredictable amounts of rain and snow. And all of this is made worse by the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere driving climate change around the globe.

Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability:  “The combination of very, very dry vegetation and extremely strong winds meant that any ignition that occurred in that ecosystem would spread very rapidly.”

Monalisa Chatterjee, a professor of environmental science at USC mentioned that the recent Santa Ana winds in Southern California, reaching unprecedented speeds of 80 to 90 miles per hour, highlight an unusual weather phenomenon amplified by the region’s unique topography of interlocking mountain ridges. This extreme event occurring in early January is particularly surprising, with experts likening the conditions to a hurricane but characterized by fire in place of rain, raising concerns about wildfire risks and the impacts of climate fluctuations.

Variety: The extremes in Southern California weather conditions over the past few years have wreaked havoc. In 2021 and 2022, the Los Angeles area was pounded by heavy rainfall, which put vegetative growth on hillsides, canyons and woodland areas on steroids. Drought conditions that returned in 2023 and 2024 turned those areas into dried-out tinderboxes just waiting to ignite.

“Every type of extreme situation has overlapped in this one moment,” Chatterjee says.

Chatterjee points to the long-term increase in non-native flora and fauna in the region. Plants, grasses and trees that aren’t naturally found in desert climates tend to burn faster and at higher temperatures, while native plants are generally more resilient.

“In many cases, we have moved far away from native species which are fire resistant and therefore did not burn so much and are able to survive, even if there’s high temperatures and fires,” Chatterjee says. “But then we have moved to invasive species that may be more beautiful. We put them in our area because they look pretty. But from a fire perspective, they are very bad because they burn easily and then help with the spreading of the fire.”

One of the immediate concerns is the danger of a massive amount of pollutants flying through the air and seeping into the ground. Modern homes are full of plastics, chemicals and other synthetic materials that emit toxins when burned. That’s why residents of the most affected areas are under orders to boil water before consuming any of it.

Levin firmly believes that Hollywood and storytelling can play a role in helping the general public understand the practical realities of climate change. The EMA has advocated for years that writers and producers seek out hopeful stories that demonstrate how incremental change – such as banning the use of plastic shopping bags, which the EMA strongly supported — can make a difference. There is no shortage of apocalyptic visions of the future. It’s high time for a climate scientist hero or two to be showcased in TV and film in ways that can educate and inspire.

“You’ve got the climate disaster movies and TV shows that show how bad it can be,” Levin says. “But they usually don’t address what we need to do now. And that’s a problem because if it’s all catastrophic, people turn off or see it as a threat to people who don’t believe in climate change.”

Related

• Biden says he prays incoming Trump administration keeps focus on LA fire response https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-prays-incoming-trump-administration-focus-la-fire/story?id=117552072
• Header image https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire#/media/File:The_Rim_Fire_in_the_Stanislaus_National_Forest_near_in_California_began_on_Aug._17,_2013-0004.jpg
• Map of fires from 01/12/25 via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_California_wildfires