section_path: Background/Severe drought
section_name: Severe drought
paragraph_text: Severe drought
  
  Dry vegetation exacerbated the dangerous conditions, with many parts of Southern California experiencing severe drought, the driest start to the rainy season on record, and the driest nine-month period on record before the start of the wind event and subsequent fires.
  
  According to a study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, climate change in the region has both increased temperatures and created volatility in rainfall levels. Droughts punctuated by periods of heavy rain, such as the rainy seasons in 2022–23 and 2023–24, result in the sudden growth of grasses, shrubs, and trees that rapidly dry out and remain as fuel for wildfires. Climate change, according to research published in Environmental Research Letters, has made the hot and dry weather more likely to overlap with the offshore wind season, creating favorable conditions for wildfires. Lengthy dry seasons also reduced local water supplies and the number of safe days to carry out controlled burns —which reduce fuel before fire season starts—creating additional challenges for firefighting.
  
  A study conducted by scientists at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace attributed the intensified fire conditions primarily to anthropogenic climate change with natural climate variability playing a minor role, after determining that meteorological conditions in the impacted areas exhibited marked differences from similar events occurring between 1950 and 1986. These included warmer temperatures of up to 5 °C (9.0 °F), precipitation decreases of up to 15%, increases of wind speeds by up to 5 km/h (roughly 20%), and urban temperature increases of up to 3 °C (5.4 °F). Additionally, as climate change made the wildfire season in California longer, it further overlapped with the season of Santa Ana winds (October–January). Analysis from Climate Central and World Weather Attribution also found that climate change strongly increased the likelihood of the wildfires by multiple ways.
  
  Dry vegetation exacerbated the dangerous conditions, with many parts of Southern California experiencing severe drought, the driest start to the rainy season on record, and the driest nine-month period on record before the start of the wind event and subsequent fires.
  
  According to a study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, climate change in the region has both increased temperatures and created volatility in rainfall levels. Droughts punctuated by periods of heavy rain, such as the rainy seasons in 2022–23 and 2023–24, result in the sudden growth of grasses, shrubs, and trees that rapidly dry out and remain as fuel for wildfires. Climate change, according to research published in Environmental Research Letters, has made the hot and dry weather more likely to overlap with the offshore wind season, creating favorable conditions for wildfires. Lengthy dry seasons also reduced local water supplies and the number of safe days to carry out controlled burns —which reduce fuel before fire season starts—creating additional challenges for firefighting.
  
  A study conducted by scientists at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace attributed the intensified fire conditions primarily to anthropogenic climate change with natural climate variability playing a minor role, after determining that meteorological conditions in the impacted areas exhibited marked differences from similar events occurring between 1950 and 1986. These included warmer temperatures of up to 5 °C (9.0 °F), precipitation decreases of up to 15%, increases of wind speeds by up to 5 km/h (roughly 20%), and urban temperature increases of up to 3 °C (5.4 °F). Additionally, as climate change made the wildfire season in California longer, it further overlapped with the season of Santa Ana winds (October–January). Analysis from Climate Central and World Weather Attribution also found that climate change strongly increased the likelihood of the wildfires by multiple ways.