At least 13 dead as severe storms sweep through the Midwest

(LOS ANGELES) — Fires are continuing to burn in Southern California, with further weather-related threats expected to increase as another Santa Ana wind event picks up this week.

While the end to the fire danger is not yet in sight, the hazards that will remain in its wake will be severe, especially due to the urban nature of many of the burn zones, experts told ABC News.

The fires burning in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties are occurring on the urban-wildland interface — areas where wildland landscapes meet with urban dwellings, Costas Synolakis, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Southern California who has studied how urban fires exacerbate post-fire related hazards, told ABC News. The further away from wildland, the less chance of ignition, which is why heavy winds were able to spark house-to-house spread quickly.

But these wildfires are so severe that they have penetrated into more urban areas, Scott Stephens, professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News.

The fires will have unprecedented environmental impacts, Synolakis said.

Landslides will be of great concern once the fires subside

Once the fires are out, landslides from burn scars will be a big concern when rain returns to Southern California and could be an issue for years to come. Post-fire debris flows are particularly hazardous because they can occur with little warning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Post-wildfire landslides can exert great loads on objects in their paths, strip vegetation, block drainage ways, damage structures and endanger human life, according to the USGS. Additionally, wildfires could destabilize pre-existing, deep-seated landslides over long periods. Flows generated over longer periods could be accompanied by root decay and loss of soil strength, according to the USGS.

Landslides already historically occur in California. But conditions are currently extreme enough to warrant concern for increased threat, Edith de Guzman, a water equity and adaptation policy cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told ABC News

The wildfires are incinerating the shrub cover, so when a rain event does occur, the precipitation hits a ground surface that could be bare minerals and unable to soak it up, Stephens said.

“You’re going to get flows of soil, rock and debris,” Stephens said.

In Los Angeles, debris basins designed to catch some of the materials sliding down the mountain to lessen the threat of landslide hazards have been built in Mount Wilson and near Eaton Canyon.

The landslide danger will be especially dangerous in the Pacific Palisades, the neighborhood nestled in the lower hills of the Santa Monica mountain range on the Westside of Los Angeles that was decimated by the Palisades fire, because there is no debris basin there, Synolakis said.

“Palisades is going to be an area that people need to be on the watchout for landslides because the valley walls are steep,” Synolakis said.

The houses that did survive the wildfire in the Palisades could also be in great danger of a severe rainstorm undercutting the foundation, Synolakis added.

Homes near creeks and steep hills could also contribute a lot of debris to landslides, Stephens said.

An average of 25 to 50 people are killed by landslides each year in the U.S., according to the USGS.

Long-term pollution could impact the region, experts say

An even bigger concern than potential landslides is the environmental impact of the fires, Synolakis said. In the near future, these burned-out communities will be filled with cleanup crews dressed in hazmat suits, Hugh Safford, a research fire ecologist at the University of California, Davis, told ABC News.

Since the fires are burning down manmade structures, the materials used to construct homes and cars are depositing toxins into the air and ground as they combust, the experts said.

“This is going into the local creek systems and in the local soils,” Safford said, adding that many of the homes built before the 1980s likely are filled with asbestos.

Debris from the scorched homes near Malibu’s Big Rock will end up in the ocean as well — by wind and sea — due to the proximity to the coastline, Synolakis said.

In Altadena, homes that were destroyed near the San Gabriel Valley Groundwater Basin could contribute pollutants to the water system, De Guzman said.

Researchers are already monitoring soil to see what kinds of heavy metals and other toxins have seeped in during the combustion process. It won’t be long before the toxins end up in the ocean through the watershed, Synolakis said.

The environmental impact of a series of wildfires this big is yet to be seen, Synolakis said. And the cleanup process will be long and arduous, Safford said.

Fire danger expected to persist

On Monday afternoon, winds will begin to pick up in the mountains and higher elevations gusting 20 to 30 mph, locally 50 mph.

There is very little rain relief for the fires in sight for the Los Angeles area in the near future, forecasts show.

While there is a 20% chance for a sprinkle on Saturday, that precipitation is expected to occur closer to San Diego.

Dry conditions are expected in the long term as well. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that La Nina conditions are expected to persist through April 2025, with Southern Californian expected to be very close to drier than normal.

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(NEW YORK) — As a deep winter chill begins to take over the northern half of the country, a new major winter storm will move across the U.S. this weekend into early next week.

The storm kicks off on Saturday as a mix of rain, snow and ice develops over the central Plains. The Kansas City, Missouri, area will likely see dangerously slick travel on Saturday evening as a wintry mix moves in.

The storm then follows Interstate 70 to St. Louis, where heavy snow and ice may strike from Saturday night through Sunday.

By Sunday, a number of cities from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic could be facing hazardous travel as the ice and snow moves east.

Meanwhile, in the South, thunderstorms with damaging winds and scattered tornadoes are possible from Houston to Memphis, Tennessee, on Sunday afternoon.

By Sunday night, snow could move into Washington, D.C., causing a dangerous Monday morning commute across much of the mid-Atlantic.

Baltimore and Philadelphia have the potential to see 6 inches or more of snow.

After the storm moves offshore, bitter cold air will move in behind it.

A portion of the polar vortex will likely trigger temperatures 10 to 25 degrees below normal for the eastern half of the U.S. by the middle of next week.

The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — could plunge below zero from the Midwest to the Northeast, and sub-freezing temperatures are forecast as far south as Florida.

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(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of people are presumed dead after an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia on Wednesday night.

The Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet and Black Hawk helicopter both crashed into the icy Potomac River after colliding in midair, launching a desperate overnight search and rescue mission. No survivors are expected, officials said.

Sixty-four people were on the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas. Three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.

Here’s a look at how the tragedy unfolded, as the cause of the collision remains under investigation.

Wednesday, Jan. 29

5:38 p.m. CT: American Airlines Flight 5342 departs from Wichita, Kansas, headed to the D.C.-area airport, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. The flight is scheduled to land in D.C. at 9:03 p.m. ET.

8:47 p.m. ET: A DCA air traffic controller asks the Black Hawk pilot if they have the CRJ in sight and to pass behind the plane. The pilot confirms to the DCA tower a few seconds later that they have the plane in sight and they will maintain visual separation, according to the ATC audio recording released by LiveATC.net.

8:47:58 p.m. ET: The time of the Black Hawk’s last transmission.

8:48:01 p.m. ET: The time of the jet’s last transmission.

Around that time, D.C. Fire and EMS receive an alert that an aircraft crashed while on approach to Reagan International Airport into the Potomac River, initiating a large local, state and federal response.

EarthCam footage from the Kennedy Center Cam captures an explosion in the air.

8:51 p.m. ET: Departures to DCA are grounded due to the aircraft emergency.

8:55 p.m. ET: DCA closes.

Around this time, Coast Guard Sector Maryland – National Capital Region command center watchstanders receive a report of the collision, with boat crews deployed to conduct searches.

8:58 p.m. ET: First responders arrive on the scene, with hundreds eventually responding from multiple agencies as they search into the night for any survivors.

Thursday, Jan. 30

At an early morning press briefing, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly says no survivors are expected from the plane crash and that crews are switching to a recovery operation.

Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered, including 27 from the plane and one from the Black Hawk helicopter, Donnelly says.

11 a.m. ET: DCA reopens, with planes now arriving and departing.

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