California started returning to new lows in terms of dryness, at least for central and southern California. December to February are usually the rainiest months of the year for California, yet we haven’t gotten a lot of rain recently. California is transitioning from a good average wet year (2023 to early 2024) to returning to its worrying dry roots. This sudden transition was met with L.A. wildfires during the start of our new year. For us barristers, 2025 and the fourth quarter of 2024 have been very dry, in fact, it hasn’t rained in Los Angeles for eight months, until January 26. Before that, the last time Los Angeles caught any sort of rain, aside from drizzles, was May 5. On the other hand, North California this year has been drenched.
Weather is complicated and difficult to record and track, thus there are lots of different rainfall and precipitation records for Los Angeles, California. But there’s one thing that’s for sure, and it’s that Los Angeles has been extremely dry recently, which can explain the devastation of the early L.A. wildfires. Drought.gov claims that 2025 is the record driest start to a water year for southern California. The San Francisco Chronicle recorded less than 1 inch of rainfall during October of 2024 to January 2025, keep in mind that it only rained once during these months. It did rain recently during the first week of February, sources seem to hover just under 2 inches of rainfall.
Most websites have not yet reported on the entirety of February 2025’s rainfall, as only two weeks have passed since the start of the month, so take this data with a grain of salt.
First Week of February Rainfall in Downtown L.A.
Bar graphs provided by Kerkrome Dia
Sources hover around an average 3 inches of rain for February
Weather.gov estimated about 1.95 inches of rain
NBC Los Angeles estimated about 1.66-1.81 inches of rain
Rainfall from Storm on February 12-14 in Downtown L.A.
Bar graphs provided by Kerkrome Dia
Sources hover around an average 3 inches of rain for February
Weather.gov estimated an additional estimate of 2.86-2.88 inches of rain during February 12-14
So far, we are only about half way through February and we have gotten a good amount of rainfall for the month, in terms of Los Angeles’s average, thanks in part to high rainfall on February 13. Though, we did get around 12.5-12.7 inches of rainfall last year (Feb 2024) and weather.gov has estimated a total of 4.88 inches of rainfall in the first two weeks of February in 2025 .
Correlation with the Fires
As we experienced during the start of 2025, L.A. was hit with some pretty devastating wildfires. Schools were shut down, inadequate air quality, thousands of homes burnt to the ground, and even thousands more families displaced. And Los Angeles’s weather patterns sort of explain why. L.A. had a consecutive wet year in 2023 and 2024 that greatly affected vegetation growth in the city and in California. Until dry tendencies returned towards the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. Early dryness and high wind speeds in California clashed, prompting an intense spread of wildfires if a fire were to break out. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) explains that vegetation acts as fuel for fires, which is why the fires in Los Angeles spread so violently and rapidly. Additionally, Advancing Earth and Space Sciences found a direct correlation between rainfall and vegetation growth. In other words, more rain equals more plant growth, and more plant growth means greater spread of fire.
Yes, it is very very early in the year, only February right now, and I shouldn’t be making too many conclusions based on these early slow results. However, it is worrying that during the months where it should be raining, it hasn’t been raining much. It rains most in California during December through February but we haven’t got much rainfall. It’s not impossible for it to rain later down in 2025 during March, April, August, and November. However, it’s typically rarer for these months to get more rainfall than the months of December through February. Which is why it’s kind of concerning that we haven’t been getting much rainfall recently.
