Of all the advice my mother’s given me, she’s repeated three things most often: Don’t walk alone at night. Avoid processed food. And don’t ever move to California.

“California’s going to fall off the face of the country and sink into the ocean,” she’d say, referencing the “big one”—the massive earthquake that scientists predict could one day break open California’s mighty San Andreas Fault. Barring that, she said, California’s wildfire seasons and air pollution would mess with my asthma. The pesticides sprayed by massive agricultural operations would probably get into my drinking water—if I had drinking water at all. Droughts and extreme heat were common, and only stood to get worse due to climate change.

I’ve long considered this advice hyperbolic and self-interested (of course my mom doesn’t want me to move far away). But after the summer California has had, I think she might be on to something.

In the last three months, the state’s extreme wildfires and heat waves have endangered millions of residents’ health and safety, and killed at least eight. At the same time, scientists published several papers asserting those events only stand to get worse over time. My mother was wrong about the “big one”—scientists don’t think California will actually fall into the ocean when it happens—but Wednesday’s 4.4-magnitude shock in Los Angeles is a reminder of the very real earthquake threat.

Is this really a place to put down roots?