As humans continue burning fossil fuels, global temperatures are rising in startlingly unpredictable ways. The trend is increasing instances of so-called compound dangers, such as landslides hurling millions of tons of mud, boulders and trees down hillsides charred by wildfires.
Such a catastrophic event killed 23 people in California’s Santa Barbara County in 2018, when unusually hard rains pounded the Santa Ynez Mountains for just 30 minutes while the Thomas Fire — among the largest in state history — still smoldered.
Los Angeles was spared from similar devastation after a mass of moisture from the Pacific drenched the county this month — making November among the wettest on record…