In January 2025, Southern California’s Santa Ana winds were so strong that hours before they exploded tiny flames in Altadena and the Palisades into catastrophes, meteorologists and scientists warned of “life-threatening” conditions. One of those prophets was climate scientist Alex Hall, who is now proposing a new system that would rank and categorize Santa Ana wind events the way we do hurricanes and tornadoes, to help Southern California better prepare for fires. 

“There’s the scientific piece of understanding when the events are truly dangerous,” says Hall, who is the director of UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability. “Then, there’s the collective action piece of agreeing in advance what our actions are going to be. That means dealing with the crazy quilt of jurisdictions and agencies that we have in Southern California and making sure that they’re coordinated. I think if we did all of that, we would be safer.”