Why wildfires are becoming faster and more furious

A confluence of environmental conditions came together with devastating timing in Los Angeles .

A combination of long-term drought and heavy rainfall provided the fuel, while powerful winds fanned the fires into raging infernos.

In California , the risk of such extremely fast-growing fires has increased by an estimated 25% due to human-caused climate change, according to some models.

Climate change is creating a thick layer of violence where fires are often often often violent.

Mediterranean California is especially prone to rapidly escalating, wide-burning fires.

Wildfires can create updrafts powerful enough to form huge pyrocumulative clouds in the sky above.

The appearance of such a cloud can indicate that a wildfire is about to escalate rapidly.

Fires tend to run up hillsides in the absence of Santa Ana winds, which can push fires down hills.

Climate change will not go away simply by relocating from some of the worst-affected places, says climate activist Margaret Klein Salamon .

Climate change brings dangerous variability across the globe, says Abatzoglou .