When the air is warm and dry, transpiration and evaporation also suck water out of the plants and soil. That leaves dry vegetation that can provide fuel for flying embers to spread wildfires, as the Los Angeles area saw in early January.

Tens of thousands of residents were under evacuation warnings as several major wildfires continue to burn through the Los Angeles area on Wednesday.

The wildfires in Southern California have led to the evacuations of over 130,000 people and have destroyed over 10,000 structures. Overlaying the wildfire outbreak across other major U.S. cities shows that the blaze is one of the worst in United States history, as it continues to spread across residential areas in Los Angeles.