The Southern California blaze was a special kind of hell. At least 10 people lost their lives and officials expect more deaths to come to light before the multiple infernos are tamed. Thousands of homes and a sprawl of entire neighborhoods were transformed into outdoor charnel houses.
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00:00Southern California is not remotely the only tinderbox part of the world,
00:05but it's an especially flammable one. And not just because of droughts, but because of their
00:11persistence. The southwest U.S. has been in a mega drought since 1999. It's the primary reason
00:18we're seeing so much more wildfire all across the U.S. west and up into Canada. Then there is the
00:25tornadic power of the winds, most notably southern California's Santa Ana. Those ferocious
00:32atmospheric rapids get their power by being forced to move through narrow channels in the mountains
00:39of northern Mexico and southern California. Everywhere the planet showed signs of heat
00:45swoon last year, as mean temperatures for the first time exceeded the 1.5 degree centigrade
00:53threshold above pre-industrial levels, a benchmark for extreme warning. The result was a year that
01:02saw record high levels of water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, record low
01:08expanses of sea ice around Antarctica, and record oceanic temperatures in the North Atlantic,
01:15Indian, and Western Pacific Oceans. These high global temperatures, coupled with record global
01:22water vapor levels, meant unprecedented heat waves and heavy rainfall events. That rainfall,
01:30interspersed with droughts, is one more mechanism that leads to wildfires. Such a boom and bust cycle
01:37means a lot of lush greenery that grows in the rainy times, and a lot of dead leaves, trees,
01:44and other tinder that gets left behind as fuel when things dry out.