Seasonal rain has brought wildflowers to Southern California and Malibu causing a so-called ‘Super Bloom’ — painting the hills with colors from orange, yellow, purple, and even blue! Now, we’re seeing black and white join the mix except they’re not flowers this time, they’re butterflies. They’re called painted ladies and they’re swarming the SoCal area. People are calling it ‘magical’.

Butterfly Migration Route

Butterflies migrate every year starting around October when temperatures start to drop. They routinely do this as they can’t handle the colder temperatures and their larval food plants only grow in warmer weather. They will spend the winter months in Mexico and sometimes Southern California where it’s usually warmer and eventually migrate up to Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest.

Southern California Super Bloom

Although these painted ladies are taking their regular route, there’s a considerable amount of them this time around causing city-wide excitement. Residents are taking to social media to document their encounters with the creatures.

While people are amazed by them, they’re also questioning why there are so many. The cold temperatures and plentiful rainfall that lead to a spectacular Super Bloom has a huge role in this. This past February, Los Angeles didn’t see temperatures reach 70 degrees. In addition to this, a large amount of rainfall took place this winter. These two factors combined prevented many of the plants from drying out, allowing butterflies a place to live and eat.

Taking over areas from Hollywood down to beaches and even parts of Palm Springs, these butterflies swarms are all over Los Angeles and by in large, residents are loving it.

Malibu is Coming Back to Life

With the Woolsey Fire leaving so much devestation and charred earth behind, we couldn’t be more pleased to see our home town coming back to life. Welcome back, Malibu!

To learn more about Malibu Real Estate, contact our team!

The Mark & Grether Group at 310.230.5771 or email us at russellandtony@compass.com.