L.A. Wildfires Stem from Compounded Climate Disasters

🔥 L.A. Wildfires Stem From Compounded Climate Disasters

As historic wildfires rage across southern California, experts point to an exceptional mix of environmental conditions and climate change to blame. Los Angeles has seen record low rainfall this winter, creating harsh drought conditions in what is typically the rainy season. On top of that, near-hurricane-strength winds aided in the combustion and spread of fast-moving wildfires. Thousands of acres have burned and remain largely uncontained. Nearly 1/3 of homes and businesses in L.A. were without power in an effort to contain the risk of new fires starting due to downed power lines. The Palisades fire ranks as the most destructive fire in L.A. history with hundreds of homes and other structures destroyed. Early estimates suggest the economic impact of the wildfires is in the tens of billions of dollars, potentially becoming the most damaging in U.S. history. Local emergency services and wildfire resources are being exhausted and overwhelmed. Greenhouse gases that humans continue to emit are fueling the climate crisis and making large fires like these more common in California. Previously, wildfire conditions like this have not existed in January.

Eric Holthaus, The Guardian

🌡️ La Niña is Finally Here

It’s official - La Niña has finally emerged in the tropical Pacific. La Niña is the cool phase of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, a pattern of sea surface temperature and atmospheric changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Although it took a little longer than initially expected, tropical sea surface temperatures finally exceeded the La Niña threshold of -0.5C in December. There is a 59% chance that La Niña persists through February-April, followed by a 60% chance of neutral conditions in March-May. Most likely, this La Niña will be weak based on computer guidance and how late in the year La Niña conditions emerged. La Niña typically peaks in the winter, so there is not much time left for it to strengthen. Given that La Niña is expected to be weak, a weaker influence over temperature and precipitation patterns is likely. That being said, temperature and precipitation patterns in October-December 2024 did resemble La Niña-like conditions, even though La Niña wasn’t officially declared during that time frame.

Emily Becker, Climate.gov

Looking at the Earth’s Climate Through Million Year-Old Bubbles

Likely the world’s oldest ice, dating back 1.2 million years, has been dug out from Antarctica. A team of researchers extracted a 2.8km-long core of ice, which includes ancient air bubbles. Hopefully, those bubbles will help solve the mystery about the Earth’s climate history. Scientists are looking to understand what happened 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago when glacial cycles were disrupted and when some researchers say our ancestors became close to extinction. The bubbles in the ice cores trap air and particles that reveal levels of greenhouse gas emissions and temperature variation that helps scientists plot how climatic conditions have altered over time. Similar ice core data in the past helped experts conclude that the current rise in GHGs is caused by humans burning fossil fuels. With the new core, they’ll be able to gain another 400,000 years worth of data.

Georgina Rannard, BBC News

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