An early January day in 2025 is a day that will live in infamy in California's long history of wildfires.
On Jan. 7, 2025, one year ago today, wildfires ignited in Southern California and were fanned by intense Santa Ana winds into rapidly sweeping infernos, scorching everything in their path.
The most destructive fires — the Palisades and Eaton fires — scorched over 16,000 structures, and over 37,000 acres in Los Angeles County, including the communities of Altadena, Malibu and Pacific Palisades. They weretwo of the three most damaging wildfires in state history, according to CAL FIRE.
At least 31 were killed in the blazes, but onestudysuggests hundreds more deaths may be attributed to both smoke and stress during the disaster.
According toClimate Centraland NOAA, total damage from last January's fires was estimated at $61.2 billion, almost double the previous record costliest U.S. wildfire in Northern California in 2018.
Southern California was also in the midst of adroughttriggered by L.A.'s driest nine months on record, according to weather historian Christopher Burt. L.A. International Airport measured only 0.15 inches of rain from mid-April 2024 through Jan. 7, 2025, including the typical wetter months of November and December.
This mix of dried out vegetation and persistent Santa Ana winds lead to these catastrophe during a month not typically notorious for California fires.
(MORE:Lessons From L.A. Fires)
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him onBluesky,X (formerly Twitter)andFacebook.
