Heavy growth of native and exotic annual vegetation promoted by extraordinarily heavy precipitation between 1976 and 1983 resulted in unprecedented fires in creosote bush scrub vegetation along the western margins of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of southern California. This study documents fire and early postfire succession in creosote bush scrub in several bums near Palm Springs, and it evaluates the stability and biogeography of this ecosystem in relation to recurrent fire.