It's so dry, even March is fire season

The region has not experienced a major rainstorm in nearly a year, with downtown Los Angeles recording just 2.42 inches of rain this season, more than nine inches below normal.

The dry conditions are taking their toll.

The Santa Ana winds that usually roar from October through December have continued with unusual frequency into March, helping fuel fires over the weekend in Orange and Riverside counties as well as smaller blazes Monday near the Griffith Observatory and in Agoura Hills.

Cities across Southern California, including Los Angeles, Westwood, Burbank, San Gabriel, Long Beach, Riverside, Oxnard and Laguna Beach, all set new temperature records Monday, ranging from the mid-80s to the mid-90s.

Local agencies have responded by beefing up fire staffing, treating late winter like the late summer and fall fire season.

"You count on winter and spring as being a respite, a time to regroup, to heal and prepare for the upcoming fire season," said Tim Sappok, the assistant operations chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. "Now, normal is abnormal. We aren't seeing the seasonal cycle. We have fuels that are ready to burn. It looks like midsummer, vegetation-wise."

The deep freeze that hit much of the region in January is also worrying firefighters because it killed or damaged countless trees and plants, leaving them vulnerable to fire.

"I know what I see, and I see a lot of things that are not good," said L.A. County Fire Capt. Bob Goldman, who responded to an unseasonal January brush fire in Malibu that destroyed five homes. "You see the lack of tall green grass, the lack of mustard plants growing. I am not seeing any of that. There is no water to get things going."

The dry conditions have residents in fire-prone areas on edge, especially as they look ahead to summer and fall, when the heaviest Santa Ana winds kick in.

Jan Currey, who has lived in Malibu for 23 years, said fires in her area usually start to the east and move west, giving people time to react. But the dry conditions have made even coastal neighborhoods vulnerable, as the January fire on the beach showed. She and her neighbors are bracing themselves.

"I've been here long enough to see patterns," Currey said, "and that if it's dry and windy, it's much worse for fires."