(CNN)Southern Californians can't get a break from nature. First, wildfires scorched a massive area northwest of Los Angeles. Now catastrophic mudslides have swallowed homes and killed at least 15 people.

But a variety of unique factors have made this latest destruction especially calamitous.

Wildfires just torched the area
Last month the sprawling Thomas Fire destroyed more than 282,000 acres -- the equivalent of more than Dallas and Miami combined...

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