Strong Santa Ana winds and lack of typical winter rain fueling LA fires

The Los Angeles area continues to be devastated by horrific January wildfires, which have killed at least five people and destroyed an unknown number of homes. The fires have been fueled by a dry rainy season in the Southland and fierce Santa Ana winds, topping out at 100 miles an hour. There’s been only about a third of an inch of rain in downtown LA since the rain season began in October, and none at all since the start of winter, far below the normal amount of precipitation the southland usually receives. That combined with this historic wind event made conditions ripe for just the kind of devastation we are seeing. For more, KCBS Radio News anchors Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart and KCBS political reporter Doug Sovern spoke with Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, professor in the Department of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.