![]() If rains start late, or if we have a bunch of wind events, we could still have a big fire.” “When we get to the fall, fuel moistures will be low again. “We aren’t out of the woods,” Clements said. Dry lightning storms, like the state experienced in 20, or a rash of arson fires, or extreme heat waves with hot winds blowing from east to west, could spark big blazes, particularly in September and October, which typically are the most dangerous wildfire months in California. To be sure, big fires are still a possibility, fire scientists say. “And that’s what we’re seeing right now.”Īn onslaught of drenching atmospheric river storms this winter ended California’s three-year drought, filling reservoirs, causing flooding in some areas, and delivering the biggest Sierra Nevada snowpack in 40 years. ![]() “My prediction has been that we are going to be below normal for wildfire this year,” said Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Laboratory at San Jose State University. The statewide average rainfall was 140% of normal. In contrast, all five of California’s mildest fire years over the past three decades happened after wet winters - 2010, 1995, 1998, 20. 9, 2020, at Lake Oroville in Northern California. Firefighters stage along Highway 162 as the Bear Fire heats up again, Wednesday, Sept. The only one that followed a wet winter was in 2017, when fall rains came late in the season and power lines fell in winds, sparking the Wine Country fires in October, and the massive Thomas Fire in December in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Since 1993, four of the five worst fire years measured by acres burned statewide occurred after drier-than-normal winters. The reason for the state’s good fortune now, experts say, is water. ![]() By comparison, one fire in July 2018, the Carr Fire near Redding, destroyed 1,614 structures and killed eight people, including three firefighters. Only four structures have burned statewide in wildfires so far this year and there have been no fatalities, reports Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency. That’s 82% less than the state’s 10-year average and is the lowest of any year since 1998. 1, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It’s nearly August, but one familiar summer trend has been very scarce this year: wildfires.Ĭalifornia is off to its slowest start to fire season in 25 years.Ī state traumatized by huge fires over the past decade that have burned millions of acres - killing more than 200 people, and generating choking smoke and apocalyptic orange skies - has seen almost no major fire activity so far in 2023.Īs of Thursday, just 24,229 acres had burned in California since Jan. ![]()
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