Our public library was closed from Christmas to New Year's Day, and I'd run out of novels to read, so I checked out the Jerry Jenkins' "underground zealot" three-book series (Soon, Silenced and Shadowed) from the church library. They take place in the mid- late-2040s, after a worldwide government has banned the practice of all religion in the name of peace. In the first book, the underground church has prayed for God to bring down judgment on Los Angeles, and when He does, it takes the form of instantaneous drought. Water glasses, swimming pools - immediately bone dry. All foliage dries out, and the entire region becomes a uninhabited desert.
The book certainly came to mind when I heard of the fires raging through Pacific Palisades and environs! I couldn't help it.