Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric preemptively shut off power to 800,000 electric customers to reduce the risk of wildfires by preventing electrical arcing in high winds from their above-ground power lines. In late October, the Kincade Fire became the largest fire of the year, burning 77,758 acres in Sonoma County. 7,860 fires burned a total of 259,823 acres. In comparison with the destructive years which preceded it, 2019 was a relatively mild fire season. Silverado Fire: Started 12,466 acres burned.Blue Ridge Fire: Started 13,964 acres burned.In early September 2020, a combination of a record-breaking heat wave, and Diablo and Santa Ana winds sparked more fires and explosively grew the active fires, with the August Complex more than doubling the Mendocino Complex’s size to become California’s largest recorded wildfire. On August 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom reported that the state was battling 367 known fires, many sparked by intense thunderstorms on August 16–17. The fire crossed seven counties and has been described as being larger than the state of Rhode Island. California’s August Complex fire has been described as the first “gigafire” as the area burned exceeded 1 million acres. As of the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4% of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California’s modern history. The 2020 California wildfire season was characterized by a record-setting year of wildfires that burned across the state of California as measured during the modern era of wildfire management and record keeping. In October, the state of California, especially in the Northern regions where most of the fires were located, received its first rain in over 200 days reducing the wildfire risk for much of the state. On August 18, 2021, the state of California was facing “unprecedented fire conditions” as multiple fires including the Dixie Fire, McFarland Fire, Caldor Fire, and others raged on. In July, more than three times as many acres had burned compared to the previous year through that date, with drought, extreme heat, and reduced snowpack contributing to the severity of the fires. ![]() In January 2021 alone, 297 fires burned 1,171 acres on nonfederal land, which is almost triple the number of fires and more than 20 times the acreage of the five-year average for January. The 2021 wildfire season in California experienced an unusually early start amid an ongoing drought and historically low rainfall and reservoir levels. Emerald Fire: Started 154 acres burned.Coastal Fire: Started 200 acres burned. ![]() ![]() In the South, with the potential for a later than normal start to the rainy season and the ongoing drought, significant fire potential is expected to remain above normal over portions of Southern CA. ![]() Lightning is not expected to be a big factor during this outlook period, with long-term drought likely to improve later in the fall. October should be a mix between warmer and drier conditions followed by cool and slightly moist periods, with a few northerly offshore wind events. In the North state, the weather outlook for October through January calls for mixed temperature and precipitation anomalies due to highly variable weather patterns.
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