Last November, our area was devastated by the Matts Creek Fire. It burned through thousands of acres of land in nearby George Washington Jefferson National Forest and left our skies filled with smoke and made the air quality drop to dangerously low levels (you can find out more about the Matts Creek Fire in one of my other articles here). The cause of the recent LA wildfires are similar to the cause of the Matts Creek Fire, which is likely caused by climate change.
On Jan. 7, a dark plume of smoke rose into the air in the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, California (NBC Los Angeles ). By mid morning, Los Angeles County residents watched as the smoke grew, unaware of the several thousand acres that would be burnt to ash and the communities, homes, and lives the raging wildfire would soon destroy.
The official cause of the devastating fires is unknown to the public, but many news outlets have speculated it was caused by humans in an area that was susceptible to wildfires due the surrounding climate’s conditions and 80 MPH wind speeds at the time.
An Inside Climate News interview with climate scientist Daniel Swain on nbc.com points to the effects of climate change in California likely being at fault for the fires spreading as rapidly and uncontrollably as they did.
“It’s not just that drier conditions are perpetually more likely in a warming climate,” Swain said. “It’s that this oscillation back and forth between states is something that is particularly consequential for wildfire risk in Southern California.”
For the past several years, California has been subjected to extreme drought conditions. However, in 2022 and 2023 the state began to experience unusually heavy rainfall, which caused an extreme spike in vegetation growth. In 2024, California’s weather conditions took another extreme turn and the state fell back into high levels of drought (yale.edu). Since there had been more foliage in California than normal, once it died from the droughts there was more fuel that could burn in a fire. When particularly strong gusts of wind stirred up underbrush, the perfect situation for a massive wildfire had arisen- all it needed was miniscule spark .
Extremes between different season’s weather patterns aren’t uncommon for much of the Earth. The increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere has been able to trap heat into the atmosphere, like a blanket, and cause icebergs in extremely cold places that were never meant to unfreeze to melt, which has changed ocean temperatures, sea levels , and weather patterns. This means that places that have naturally extreme climates (i.e. the West coast) begin to have even more extreme climates and weather patterns, hence the extreme rainfall to extreme drought in LA.
Anthony and Justin Mitchel died amidst the flames of the LA fire in their home in Altadena. Anthony’s son and Justn’s brother, Anthony Mitchell JR., describes his father as a loving parent and grandparent who does anything for his family to NBC.
In a phone call with Anthony Micahel JR., Anthony Michale had told his son, “I want you to know that my kids and my grandkids, my nieces and nephews, you guys are all my legacy. You guys are my treasure. Money don’t matter, property don’t matter, my kids and my family are my treasure.”
Not only did the fire cost lives such as Anthony’s and Michhael’s, but it is also predicted to cost more than 20 billion dollars in property damages (NBC).
Climate change is here, and the natural disasters scientists have been predicting for years are already here- and the time is now to do something about it. You can make a change by speaking out, protesting and spreading awareness, in order to change our world, for the better.
