Edgar McGregor

In the early morning hours of Sunday, May 6, 2024, Eaton Canyon received another round of seemingly non-descript precipitation. A total of 0.31″ soaked the already green, lush canyon. The area had received 75.00″ – 100.00″ of precipitation over the past 18 months, and adding another third of an inch to those totals was nothing to write home about. Little did everyone know, however, that this would mark the end of an era.

Two hundred and forty six days later on January 6, 2025, Eaton Canyon was in a different place. In that time, a meager 0.08″ had fallen on the lower part of the park, setting a record at the official Pasadena weather station for driest May 7th – January 6th period in 118 years of weather record keeping. Each storm system throughout November and December failed to live up to expectations. The canyon had flipped from an immensely wet state directly into a bone dry one. This transition left the park with a tremendous amount of fuel that had also quickly dried out. The ingredients were set for a cataclysmic wildfire. All that was needed was wind.

During the second half of the 3 o’clock hour the following morning, a mountain wave windstorm rapidly spawned over Eaton Canyon. Winds quickly rose from calm conditions at 3:30 AM to winds of 55 MPH thundering down the canyon at 4:30 AM as recorded by the SoCal Edison Weather Station in the Equestrian Area. By dawn, park staff made the decision to close the park for the day due to the powerful winds. Strong winds continued to roar in the canyon to 65 MPH through 11 AM. Despite a 1.5 hour lull around noon, the winds returned in the afternoon. 

At 6:00 PM, a full 14 hours after the windstorm begun, winds continued to churn out of Eaton Canyon with occasional gusts to 65 MPH. At Henninger Helipad, winds of 85 MPH were recorded.

At 6:13 PM, on the evening of January 7, 2025, residents in the Canyon Close neighborhood looked outside and noticed an orange glow in the hills above. Allegedly, a branch blown off the mountain by high winds landed in the set of high tension wires that are draped across Eaton Canyon’s foothills. If this well-accepted scenario is confirmed by fire investigators, then this branch would have caused sparks to fly off the powerlines and land in the brush below the towers. As of the evening of January 13th, 2025, this explanation is officially unconfirmed. 

At 6:14 PM, the first 9-1-1 calls of a possible brush fire came in. Under extraordinarily high winds, dry fuels, and low humidity, the fate of Eaton Canyon was sealed right then and there. Firefighters were not going to be able to stop this one, and they knew it. The blaze took some time to get established, especially since many of the powerful winds were overshooting the steep mountain slopes and instead crashing into the surface on the canyon floor 500 – 2,000 feet ahead. However, emergency crews did not have enough time to respond. The erratic winds sent embers if every which direction, and the fire quickly exploded in size. 

As of the writing of this post, the #EatonFire has destroyed 7,000+ structures in Altadena, including 5,000+ homes. Sixteen community members have lost their lives. Over 14,117 acres have been “moonscaped” according to the County Fire Department. Upper Eaton Canyon, which has no record of seeing a wildfire in 80+ years, was destroyed. Entire neighborhoods in nearby Altadena were burned to the ground, and the California Governor has called this and the #PalisadesFire one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. 

MyEatonCanyon.com will do everything in it’s power to continue to bring the latest updates on the park. However, we can confirm that it will be years, not months, before the general public is allowed back in. 

Eaton Canyon has been hurt, and it needs peace and tranquility to recover. There will be a mad rush to get back in there to rebuild, restore, and rejuvenate. For now, though, the canyon needs a break. Please stay on the lookout for the latest from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation as well as the Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates on how you can help.  

On December 17, 2024, the Southern California Edison weather station that is bolted to a powerline next to the Pinecrest Gate at Eaton Canyon observed something rather remarkable. At 10:50 PM, the station recorded an air temperature of 74.4°F as a 14 MPH Santa Ana breeze swept past it. This beat the previous afternoon’s observed high of 73.7°F, meaning the weather station set its daytime high temperature a full five hours after sun set in the month of December!

This early-winter warm spell has been part of a larger problem facing Eaton Canyon and Southern California in general this year. It is December 25th, and yet another week has gone by without any meaningful rainfall. Eaton Creek is running dry, soils are parched, and vegetation remains dust-ridden. The fourth wettest month of the year, December, will end as a total shutout in 2024 with no measurable rainfall at the official Pasadena weather station. This has only happened four other times in 118 years of precipitation record-keeping.

Having just come off our wettest 18-month period on record between November 2022 and April 2024, and our driest 18-month period on record between April 2020 and November 2021, this extreme precipitation whiplash is hitting local ecosystems hard. The 2020s have been marked by either feast or famine, and that trend has only continued. As a result of this, MyEatonCanyon.com can unfortunately report that hundreds of young Western Sycamore and White Alder saplings that sprouted alongside the creek following the uber-wet winter 2023 rains have perished. Some had attained heights of up to 8′ before succumbing to drought.

As it stands, Pasadena is currently experiencing its driest June 1st – December 25th period ever recorded with just 0.07,” besting the 0.11″ record set in 2020. At Eaton Canyon itself, just 0.13″ has fallen at Eaton Dam while up to 0.59″ has fallen at Camp Hi-Hill behind Eaton Saddle. These numbers are even worse than those seen in 2020 and 2017, both of which were other exceedingly dry years.

Taking a look at creek flow, however, flow extent still remains prevalent following the drenching rains of winters 2023 and 2024. As of the December 1st survey, 47.9% of the creek is flowing between the waterfall and the New York Drive bridge. This isn’t all that much worse than 2023, and many young White Alder and Sycamore saplings that are growing where the creek is still flowing are alive and well.

The long term pattern continues to look highly unfavorable for precipitation as a huge ridge of high pressure sets up over the eastern Pacific just off the coast of California. January 2025 already looks like it will also be a bone dry month, with few if any storms managing to break through.

Concerns about a significantly below average or even record dry winter in Southern California are mounting as Pacific storms continue to fall apart before reaching the region. MyEatonCanyon.com will continue to monitor the growing drought situation with monthly creek-flow surveys continuing as normal. 

 

Throughout the months of November and December 2024, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has been and will continue to reconstruct Altadena Drive between New York Dr. and the Midwick Gate. This project is occurring in an effort to improve asphalt conditions which have deteriorated after decades of storms and traffic. During construction, the main Eaton Canyon gate will remain open to ingress access only. All vehicles are required to exit the park onto New York Dr. via the overflow parking lot. Any vehicle caught bypassing barriers and closed gates attempting to exit through the main gate may be cited by county sheriffs’ officers.

In July, MyEatonCanyon.com reported on a single-car traffic accident by the Midwick Parking Pad that was due to excessive speeding and commented on the dangers of Altadena Dr. to Eaton Canyon visitors. According to the project outline, which is provided here, there are no plans to create safe crosswalks for pedestrians exiting the Eaton Canyon Main Entrance at this time. Comments on the project to team managers may be emailed to [email protected].