Southern California Hot Spot Hits 812 Degrees, Baffles Experts

Summary

August 6, 2008: In Ventura Coutry, just north of Los Angeles, California, a mysterious "hot spot" appeared that caused the ground to reach a temperature of over 800 degrees Fahrenheit on August 1st, 2008. The exact cause is unknown, though some geologists suspect that natural gases might have caused a fire deep underground, which in turn caused the high surface temperature.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

2. Arcana Wiki Map entry

Game and Story Use

• It might have been caused by some large entity of fire living below California which is slowly moving towards the surface.
• In a fantasy campaign with a stereotypical "Underdark", this might be a local temperature hazard that doesn't have anything to do with streams of lava.