As I start to write this, we are in the middle of a disaster that is playing out in Southern California. I have lived in Northern California (SF Bay Area) for most of my adult life, but lived in SoCal for a couple of years right after I graduated in 1975 (BSEE, Texas Tech).
The above disaster was caused by an unfortunate (and freaky) series of major weather anomalies, which automatically forces me to list human-caused climate change as a primary cause This situation is summarized below.
Ten wildfires — the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Woodley, Archer, Lidia, Auto, Clay, Sepulveda, and Hughes fires – have burned through Ventura and Los Angeles counties with a combined area of >50,000 acres. Five fires were still active on Saturday (1/25), the Eaton, Palisades, Laguna and Hughes fires. At least 28 people have been killed by the disaster and over 10,000 structures were confirmed to have been destroyed, according to Cal Fire. Estimated damages are $250-275 billion per news reports. The good news as of Saturday is that Southern California is expecting rain later today.
