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Los Angeles Was Waiting to Burn
How a rapid cycling between extreme wet and dry conditions — or ‘weather whiplash’ — became California’s new normal.
Santa Ana winds whipped embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, and Southern California transformed into a furnace. In the Pacific Palisades, palm trees ignited like torches wielded by gods. Malibu’s , where dreams are bought and sold, collapsed into an inferno. The Getty Villa burned, a high school turned to ash, and even — succumbed as a burning monument to a failing system. With the flames swallowing homes and history, ash rained on abandoned cars, while through chaos like clearing remnants of a broken world.
went live on YouTube, warning: It’s going to get worse before it gets better. On the ground, captured of Barbie’s burning backyard. All scenes from hell — only this hell sits at the heart of Hollywood’s dream machine, where apocalypse is entertainment until it isn’t.
It’s January. This is supposed to be Southern California’s wet season. Yet, after 2024 broke records as the hottest year on Earth, every season feels out of sync, and every disaster is amplified. In Los Angeles’ semi-arid chaparral…
