Los Angeles Basin Has Become Increasingly Dry And At Risk Of More Fires

LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 14: Downtown lights shine behind the dry Hollywood Hills May 14, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. The rain season in Los Angeles is shaping up as the driest since record-keeping began in 1872 and the region is now in an "extreme" drought state, the second-driest ranking given by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Because of the drought, overgrowth from the second-wettest winter on record two years ago, dead leaves in much of the native chaparral habitat following a disastrous freeze in January, years of drought-induced bark beetle infestations that have killed untold thousands of pines in the mountain areas, and a fire season that continued throughout the winter, fire officials say that conditions are right for wildfires of disastrous proportions and frequency in southern California this year. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)