Hot Santa Ana winds are to be expected as winter passes through Southern California.
But this year, they arrived with a vengeance, at a time when California was enduring its driest winter in recorded history.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency, calling for everyone in California to try to cut their water usage by at least 20 percent.
And, as always, fires have been fanned at many sites across the state, including flames that licked at the dry grasslands in and around Malibu, where an overturned car ignited dry brush.
Firefighters were also called out to battle a blaze that took root in the barely accessible hillsides in Pacific Palisades.
