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On a normal day in LA, the air quality index, or AQI, might be 50 or 60. But near the wildfires, readings reached 400 or even above 500, "which is absolutely huge," says Tarik Benmarhnia, a climate and health scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. (Borunda, 1/8)

Southern California is experiencing its most devastating winter fires in more than four decades. Fires don’t usually blaze at this time of year, but specific ingredients have come together to defy the calendar in a fast and deadly manner. (Borenstein, 1/8)

When officials in Richmond, Va., announced a citywide boil water advisory on Monday, residents buckled down for an unpleasant day or two. They are still buckled down. On Wednesday, officials said that people would most likely need to keep boiling their water until at least Friday, as a disruption that began with a brief power outage at the water plant amid a winter storm has led to a dayslong engineering challenge and a citywide relief operation. (Robertson, 1/8)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Climate Change Threatens The Mental Well-Being Of Youths. Here’s How To Help Them Cope. 

We’ve all read the stories and seen the images: The life-threatening heat waves. The wildfires of unprecedented ferocity. The record-breaking storms washing away entire neighborhoods. The melting glaciers, the rising sea levels, the coastal flooding. As California wildfires stretch into the colder months and hurricane survivors sort through the ruins left by floodwaters, let’s talk about an underreported victim of climate change: the emotional well-being of young people. (Wolfson, 1/9)