LA wildfires: What other destructive weather events have hit the Golden State?
Looking back over the past 20 years, the so-called Golden State has suffered its fair share of disasters, from drought and wildfires to earthquakes and flooding. What have been the most notable weather events?
Friday 10 January 2025 16:44, UK
The wildfires currently blazing across California are already ranked among the most destructive in Los Angeles history.
The Palisades fire between Santa Monica and Malibu on the city's western flank and the Eaton fire in the east near Pasadena, have already consumed more than 34,000 acres - turning entire neighbourhoods to ash.
Looking back over the past 20 years, the so-called Golden State has suffered its fair share of disasters, from drought and wildfires to earthquakes and flooding.
LA fires updates: Follow the latest
Here is a list of the most notable disasters to have hit California since 2005, and why the state is so prone to extreme weather events.
Dr Steven Godby, an expert in natural hazards at Nottingham Trent University, told Sky News that California is prone to disasters due to the combination of its "variable weather, climate and containing a tectonic plate boundary".
"Tectonic activity in the form of earthquakes and their associated hazards - ground shaking, landslides, building collapse, fires - combined with a Mediterranean climate giving droughts, heatwaves and wildfires is why California experiences so many disasters," he said.
"In addition, there is a large and growing population, expansion of urban areas - some of which is into dangerous locations - important infrastructure and industry like Silicon Valley - much of which is exposed to several natural hazards.
"A disaster ensues when a natural hazard leads to loss of life, injury, property loss, so we have both the hazards and people exposed to those hazards."
Focusing on wildfires, Dr Godby said relatively wet periods of weather being followed rapidly by very dry weather in California help to drive conditions for fires to breakout.
He referred to this as "weather whiplash" or "hydroclimate whiplash" which can increase the potential for wildfires.
2005: La Conchita mudslide
On 10 January 2005, a landslide struck the community of La Conchita in Ventura County, California, destroying or damaging 36 houses and killing 10 people, according to a report by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The area is nestled between the shoreline and a 600ft (180m) tall bluff - a steep slope or broad, rounded cliff that forms in sediment along a coastline, river, or beach.
Although it is not unusual for landslides to occur in the area, the one in 2005 happened at the end of a 15-day period that
produced record and near-record amounts of rainfall in many areas of southern California, the USGS said at the time.
The mudslide pushed houses off their foundations and destroyed parts of a wall that was built to help keep debris off the road.
2006: Severe heatwave
In July 2006, California and Nevada were impacted by a heat wave that was unprecedented in terms of the extremely high temperatures and the length of time it stayed so hot, according to the American Meteorological Society.
During this time, the county of Los Angeles recorded its all-time highest temperature of 48C (119F) on 22 July in the Woodland Hills area, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The extreme heat put pressure on water and energy resources, with the period between 15 June to 1 August leading to about 140 deaths.
2007-2009: Three-year drought
In February 2009, the governor of California proclaimed a state of emergency for a statewide water shortage - the first time ever in the state's history.
The state had been experiencing less than average rainfall since October 2006, but external factors, such as the restriction of water projects to protect endangered fish species, exacerbated the shortages, which soon became known as a drought.
The conditions caused major economic impacts to agriculture, and many people in rural communities dependent on the sector lost their jobs. It cost the state about $25bn (£20bn), according to the National Centres for Environmental Information.
It also contributed to the outbreak of wildfires, which killed 17 people in 2007.
The drought was described at the time by the director of the Department of Water Resources as the "most severe" water shortage in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, and only ended in 2009 as the state entered a wet period.
2011: Severe wind storm
Residents in the San Gabriel Valley experienced a wind storm so severe that it cut off power to 400,000 residents and damaged more than 200 homes, according to The LA Times.
The storm, which occurred in late November and early December, was produced by two separate weather systems that channeled cold air from the north into the Los Angeles area.
Described by the Times as "two massive gears spinning in opposite directions", the two systems funneled the winds, causing carnage across the area.
The storm ended up causing about $40m (£32m) of damage.
2018: State's most destructive wildfires
By the end of November 2018, California had experienced nearly 8,000 fires - and more than 1.8 million acres of land had been destroyed, according to the Centre for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP).
Similar to the blazes being seen today, three fires, Camp, Hill and Woolsey, broke out on 8 November, close to major cities and grew at rapid speeds.
One fire in particular, the Camp fire in Butte, was named at the time as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. Driven by strong winds, it burned 18,000 acres of land within six hours - a rate of more than a football field every second, the CDP said.
The Camp fire killed at least 85 people and displaced roughly 54,000 people from their homes. It took 17 days to control.
2019: Ridgecrest earthquakes
On American Independence Day in July 2019, more than 47,000 people across California, Phoenix and Arizona felt shaking from a 6.4 magnitude earthquake centred near the California city of Ridgecrest.
Around 34 hours later and about 6.8 miles away from the site of the first quake, a second stronger 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurred - the largest earthquake in southern California since 1999, according to USGS.
Images from the scene showed cracks in roads, damaged houses and shop shelves bare after products fell to the floor during the quake.
2023: Hurricane Hilary
Hurricane Hilary in 2023 made headlines as it churned off the west coast of Mexico and tracked north toward southern California.
It prompted the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to issue its first ever tropical storm watch for southern parts of the state, which was later downgraded to a warning, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hilary caused carnage when it hit the state, flooding roads, toppling trees and trapping residents in a care home.
It also broke daily rain records in various places and dumped the equivalent of a full year's worth of precipitation on Death Valley National Park, forcing it to shut.
2024: Atmospheric storms
At least three people were killed in a winter storm that brought near-record amounts of rain and destructive mudslides to parts of California in February last year.
At one point virtually all of southern California was under flash flood warnings, including the Los Angeles area, where up to 25.4cm (10in) of rain had fallen, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
There were at least 130 flood incidents and 120 mudslides, with an estimated 710,000 people across wider California left without power.
Follow our channel and never miss an update
The weather event was called an atmospheric river storm - a bed of moisture in the atmosphere that carries wet air from the tropics, and dumps heavy snow and rain across another region.
It was also referred to as a Pineapple Express weather system because atmospheric rivers are named for their origin, and the source for the moisture in 2024 was near Hawaii.