California's wildfire season may now be year-round

Last week’s horrendous wildfires in the Los Angeles region continue to make worldwide headlines. As of the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced with over 12,300 structures either heavily damaged or destroyed, including precious local landmarks. Damage from these blazes is likely to become the costliest in U.S. history. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused damages of around $195 billion.

As of the weekend, it’s not entirely certain what caused these massive and catastrophic wildfires. However, once they started, the strong “Santa Ana” winds, combined with very dry conditions, helped the wildfires to explode to what became one of the worst wildfires in California and U.S. history. The Palisades Fire, one of the largest ones, combined with the other fires, has burned approximately 40,000 acres of land in Southern California.

From an article I wrote in December, the strong ridge of high pressure locked in over the northwestern part of the country helped to create very strong winds in Southern California. Many of us know about the Santa Ana winds that were generated, as winds were gusting faster than a Category 1 hurricane, which has a minimum speed of 74 mph.

Until recently, the wildfire season in Southern California was typically June through October. However, officials are now saying that the season is year-round. The late 2024 to early 2025 period is the first time that Southern California has reported major wildfires in November, December and January.

On Nov. 6, 2024, there was a fast-moving wildfire that ignited and spread due to strong Santa Ana winds. Over 20,000 acres were burned from this blaze. On Dec. 9, 2024, the Franklin Fire erupted in Malibu, Calif., that burned more than 4,000 acres and either destroyed or damaged nearly 50 structures. The blazes this month are unprecedented.

In addition to the strong winds, the wildfires over the last three months were also the byproduct of a hotter than normal summer of 2024 in the Los Angeles region. Also, rainfall for the late fall and early winter season has been much below normal levels. Since Oct. 1, downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches of rain, compared to a normal to date of approximately 5 inches with no significant rainfall for the region in sight.

Satellite technology is widely used to help detect wildfires from the heat they will generate. According to an article from World Resources Institute, as of late last week, there were over 60 fire alerts issued in the Los Angeles area. This is more than 40 times the average during the first two weeks of the year from 2012 to 2024.

Tree cover loss in California is primarily due to wildfires. The article states that in 2020 and 2021, the state lost nearly 2 million acres of tree cover due to fires. The country that reported the greatest loss of tree cover from 2001 to 2023 was Russia. On average, Russia had approximately 6.25 million acres scorched by wildfires each year which has resulted in the loss of tree cover. Canada has the second most tree cover loss with over 3.85 million acres of land burned each year. The United States reported an average of over 1.36 million acres of land hit by wildfires. Brazil was close to the United States with Australia reporting an average of 694,000 acres of tree cover loss each year from 2001 to 2003.

Locally, one of the largest blazes in the Spokane area was the Spokane Firestorm which began Oct. 16, 1991. Several years of drought and strong winds helped lead to 92 blazes. Widespread destruction was reported from these massive fires.

Perhaps the worst fire in this region occurred Aug. 20-21, 1910. The “Great Fire of 1910,” or the “Big Blow Up,” was a massive wildfire that burned 3 million acres in two days across northeastern Washington, the Panhandle of North Idaho and western Montana. The extremely dry spring and summer, along with hot temperatures helped to trigger the massive blaze. This firestorm raised public awareness concerning nature conservation and helped shape the U.S. Forest Service. It also displayed the bravery and dedication of firefighters.

In terms of our local weather, only 8.4 inches of snow has fallen at Cliff’s station for the 2024-25 season. Amazingly, the Spokane Airport has received more snow than Coeur d’Alene with a total of 13 inches. It’s not very often we see Spokane picking up more snow than areas around North Idaho, but this is an unusual season. In fact, Little Rock, Ark., has also received more snow than Coeur d’Alene as they have picked up nearly 10 inches for the season.

We’re still in a pattern with the coldest and snowiest weather moving into the central and eastern portions of the country. There’s still a chance we could see some measurable snowfall at the end of this week and toward the end of next week. If the colder air to our east backs up in February, then we would have a better chance of more snow in the lower elevations.

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com.