“Stats aren’t about numbers.”
Gavin NewsomYoung Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery. Penguin Press, 2026, p. 83.
The Office of Mayor Karen Bass, in coordination with the LAFD and an external public relations firm, drafted a prepared statement attributing their failure with the Palisades Fire to an undocumented false claim that hurricane force winds prevented containment at the start of the fire. This prepared statement is explicitly documented within the 'Tough Q&A - Mayor Bass' segment of the official After Action Review Report Q&A resources acquired via public record disclosures.
Question: “What challenges did firefighters face upon arrival?”
“Our department and city were confronted with extreme and unprecedented weather conditions that tested every limit... The Pacific Palisades Fire broke out under extraordinary conditions: powerful, hurricane-level winds that reached up to 100 MPH in some locations... This circumstance was an extreme scenario that no department, in any city, has had to face before.”
More than 3,000 wind weather stations within a 150 mile radius of the Palisades Fire completely refutes this false narrative. Below is the uncorrupted meteorological record spanning thousands of public and private stations, tracking zero verifiable evidence of an alleged hurricane-force wind used to justify failure in containing the fire.
The number in each circle represents the sustained wind speed recorded by the associated weather station. By definition, the minimum sustained wind speed required for a Category 1 hurricane is 74 mph.
Assembling Meteorological Timelines... 0%
3,042 Weather Stations and Fire Map Data
Blue Perimeter: The 2024 Franklin Fire burn scar which prevented the western spread of the fire.
Red Perimeter: The 2025 Palisades Fire.
Select Date
Select Time (15-min intervals)
12:00 AM11:45 PM
Size (Acres):
0
Last Updated:
No Fire Reported
Elevation: The difference between the station's elevation and the fire origin's elevation of ~390 feet.
Distance: The distance from the station to the fire origin at 34.07022° N latitude and 118.54453° W longitude.
Sustained: Hurricane-force winds are measured by sustained wind speed, which must be at least 74 mph.