Unwrapping a wet Christmas

Experts blame warming for intensifying global drought-to-deluge cycle

- RONG-GONG LIN II

BIANCA Brown, right, and her son Rylen Adams, from Las Vegas, have their photo taken at a rainy Santa Monica Place on Wednesday.

A year ago, officials were sounding alarms about a bone-dry winter that days later would combine with wind gusts of up to 100 mph to bring about the worst fires in Los Angeles history.

Now, Southern California just experienced its wettest Christmas in modern history.

This Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the rainiest in the modern record for many parts of Southern California, according to the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. Some mountain areas have received close to 18 inches of rain since Tuesday, with more rain falling on Friday though it should clear up by the weekend.

This is also one of the wettest starts to the water year, which began Oct. 1. Through midday Christmas, it already ranked in the 10 wettest for Southern California - a complete opposite from last year.

SHERIFF'S officials responded to numerous vehicles trapped by flooding in the Antelope Valley on Friday. Above, cars in Palmdale.

The rain brought needed moisture to dry vegetation and helped keep the state out of drought conditions, further blotting out the risk of wildfire danger. It also speaks to a larger cycle.

Last year was remarkably dry and hot. The summer and fall of 2024 were some of the hottest months in coastal Southern California since at least 1895. California experienced its hottest July ever in 2024.

Around the globe, people are seeing more dramatic swings between dry-to-wet and wet-to-dry weather whiplash. Scientists say more such episodes of "hydroclimate whiplash" are anticipated worldwide because of human-caused global warming.