By Bayla Rothschild, Staff Writer
Homes destroyed, lives uprooted, feelings of uncertainty over the future – there are all byproducts of the recent devastating California wildfires. California has dealt with numerous wildfires in the past number of years, but the ones that ravished through the western state this January have been some of the worst the region has seen in recent years.
Scientists are debating the exact causes of the wildfires, but extreme weather conditions seem to be one of the main factors (many of which are caused by climate change). California has dealt with droughts for many years, but 2022 and 2023 featured a lot of rainfall, culminating in a record breaking dryness and temperatures towards the end of 2024. This made the grass and plants more susceptible to being easily burnt.
Extreme winds combined with the easy to burn vegetation allowed the fires to grow and spread extremely quickly. The winds that spread the wildfires are called Santa Ana winds, which often blow down from the mountains toward the Southern California coast. They are extremely powerful, and under dry conditions, can become a fire hazard. Due to their strength, they can move the fire extremely fast and also move embers relatively far distances which, when fallen, can spark new fires in other unpredictable locations.
Currently, one of the best ways to monitor and detect wildfires is through the use of remote sensing and satellites. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) owns satellites that are excellent at detecting when wildfires start and can monitor their progression regardless of how remote their location is. The state of California uses an AI based system that recognizes early signs of fires using a camera network in the forests. Other ways to do similar types of detections can be done via helicopters with thermal sensing.
Getting rid of dried out vegetation that is highly flammable can also help prevent fires from starting and spreading. There are also computational methods that have been developed to help predict the future risk of wildfires based on the flammability of materials in a given location.
The electricity of the power lines could also be contributing to the fires. Poor maintenance on electrical equipment combined with other electrical issues have caused or intensified fires in the past. Updating and burying power lines could be a good preventative measure in addition to turning off the power when extremely strong winds are blowing in specific neighborhoods that are most at risk.
These fires have been devastating to Southern California. The official causes will need a lengthy investigation, but there already are a myriad of reasons for what could have caused them.