The Mysterious Blaze: Uncovering the Truth Behind LA's Wildfire
This blog delves into the devastating Los Angeles wildfires of January 2025, exploring how unique weather phenomena like the Santa Ana winds and mountain wave rotors contributed to the overwhelming spread of the flames.
ENGLISH LANGUAGES
1/23/20255 min read


Introduction
On the morning of January 6, 2025, at 11:15, a guy named David Moro was chilling on his apartment balcony, enjoying the views of the Pacific Ocean. It was just another normal day for him. Suddenly, he spotted flames with sparks about 5 miles away on the hills of Pacific Palisades. Before he knew it, in just an hour, the fire spread so much that smoke completely covered the mountain. From a satellite view, it was first reported that the fire started on the Palisades hills, but just a few hours later, it reached Eaton Hurst and Kenneth Getty Skirball.
The Spread and Impact of the Fire
The fire spread all the way to the San Fernando area. When it started, there were winds blowing at 100 km/h, blowing from inland towards the ocean. This raises the question: if the fire first ignited in the Palisades, which is right by the ocean, how did it spread 30 to 40 km against the wind? Welcome back to the videos, everyone. This fire has completely devastated an area of 38,000 acres, or about 150 square kilometers. Over 12,000 buildings and homes have been destroyed, and around 180,000 people are affected.
Challenges in Firefighting
People have had to evacuate their homes. This is the most devastating fire in Los Angeles history, and it’s still not completely under control, even as this video is being made. Every possible effort to put it out seems to be failing. Water bombers are dropping 45,000 liters of water at a time, but it barely makes a dent against the flames. Special chemicals are being dropped alongside the water, but it all seems futile against the power of nature. California is already facing a water shortage, which often leaves fire hydrants empty.
History of Wildfires in California
The fire spread across seven different areas, which meant that firefighters and their equipment got split up. On top of that, when winds between 70 to 100 km/h hit the flames, it made the fire flare up even more. Before we dive into the real reasons behind the Los Angeles wildfires, let's take a look at how many times wildfires have struck California in the past. If we check the data from the last 25 years, California has been a hotspot for wildfires. Back in 2003, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County scorched 273,000 acres, starting on October 25.
Seasonal Patterns of Wildfires
On November 4, 2003, it all started. Then in 2017, the Tubbs Fire burned 36,000 acres, and it kicked off again in October. Later that year, the Thomas Fire turned 280,000 acres to ash; it started in December and wrapped up in January. Then on November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire scorched 500,000 acres and was finally contained 17 days later on November 25. In 2020, the Glass Fire hit 67,000 acres, starting in September and finishing up in October. If you look at all these wildfires, there's one thing that stands out: they all occurred in winter.
Role of Santa Ana Winds
Wildfires have been happening this month, and just recently, the Los Angeles wildfires peaked during the winter. So, what’s the reason that most wildfires in California occur mainly in the winter? The answer lies in a phenomenon known as the Santa Ana winds. Yes, the Santa Ana winds are hot, dry winds that blow through Southern California and Baja California, especially during autumn and winter. If you look at the geography, to the east of California, there are vast desert areas known as the Mojave Desert or the Great Basin.
Geographical and Meteorological Influences
The sun heats up the desert, which causes the air pressure here to rise. On the other hand, when it comes to the ocean, the air is cooler and the pressure is lower. We learned in sixth grade that air moves from high pressure to low pressure. The bigger the difference in pressure, the faster the air travels. That’s exactly what happens here too. The Santa Ana winds from Southeast California move quickly towards the ocean. These dry and warm winds suck up moisture from wherever they pass.
Mountain Wave Rotor
The whole region dries up during this season, and the bushes and trees completely wither, making them super easy to catch fire. The Santa Ana winds turn the entire forest into fuel for wildfires, and if a spark happens, those strong winds just fan the flames even more. The burning embers spread quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the wildfire gets out of control. Ideally, the wildfire should spread in the same direction as the wind is blowing, but in the case of Los Angeles, it’s the complete opposite.
The fire was first spotted near the Palisades, close to the ocean, and then it spread inland. To understand why this happened, we need to look at an interesting phenomenon called mountain wave rotor. The side of the mountain that the wind hits directly is called the windward side, while the opposite side, where the wind goes, is known as the leeward side. What happens is that when the windward side blocks the wind, it creates a vortex effect on the leeward side.
The wind keeps swirling around, which means that up on the mountain, the wind is blowing in one direction, while down at the base, it's going the opposite way. This phenomenon played a huge role in the case of Los Angeles too. In Palisades, where the fire was first reported, it's on the leeward side, and because of the mountain wave rotor, the air is generated in the opposite direction from the peak down below, which is a major reason the fire spread into inland areas. Once a wildfire gets really intense, it creates a bunch of strange phenomena.
Fire Tornadoes
Predicting them is really tough, and one example is a fire tornado. It's a rare and dangerous phenomenon that forms during intense wildfires. It acts like a tornado, but inside, it's just fire and superheated air, which heats up the air instantly and pulls it upward. Because of the heat, the warm air rises rapidly, and cooler air rushes in from below to fill the space. This updraft creates a rotational motion that pulls in nearby dry bushes, intensifying the fire tornado.
Challenges and Solutions
It creates a lot of fear, especially when a fire tornado starts to dominate the winds in the area and generates its own air, making it really hard to predict its direction. But most of the time, it tends to push wildfires up along the mountains. Wildfires are a real issue, and with climate change, we’re seeing them happen more frequently in the coming years. Nowadays, artificial intelligence can even predict the direction of how the fire spreads, and all that info gets passed on to the firefighters.
Firefighters try to spray chemicals around the area where the fire has broken out to keep it from spreading too much. But in Los Angeles, they would first try to control one area, and by the time they did, the wind would carry the fire to another spot. The first recorded wildfire in U.S. history happened in 1871 near Michigan, burning 1.2 million acres and claiming 2,500 lives. From the Peshtigo Fire in 1871 to today's wildfires in Los Angeles, nature is still warning us that controlling fire is still a big challenge.
Conclusion
"It seems impossible, but if we try to understand nature and adapt to climate change instead of fighting against it, maybe we can put a stop to the wildfires. Thank you so much for your loving comments. See you in the next amazing blog!