While Lake County has suffered more than its share of devastation in the last 12 months from wildfires, this weekend’s destructive Clayton Fire has been one of the few blazes to cause major damage in Northern California this fire season.
Through Monday, 270,744 acres have burned statewide this year. But 85 percent of that has occurred south of the Bay Area, according to statistics from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
A key reason is where rains and snow fell this winter.
A strong El Niño weather pattern gave Northern California the wettest year in five years, filling major reservoirs like Shasta and Oroville. But nearly everywhere south of Monterey received less-than-average rainfall. Los Angeles, for example, received 47 percent of normal rainfall, Riverside 45 and Santa Barbara 59.
By contrast, San Jose received 102 percent of its historic average, San Francisco 99, Livermore 99 and Redding 120. Similar patterns happened with snow in the Sierra Nevada.
“That rain delays the beginning of fire season.” said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley.
There also has been less lightning activity this summer than in recent years, said Kari Peak, a spokeswoman with the National Interagency Fire Center.
Because of Northern California’s relatively mild fire season so far this year, 2016 ranks fourth in the past 10 years in California for acres burned through Aug. 15. This 270,744 acres that have burned so far is slightly below the average of the past 10 years of 304,643 acres that burned statewide by this date.
Two of California’s biggest fires this year have been in rugged, remote forest areas. The Soberanes Fire in Big Sur — sparked by an illegal campfire at Garrapata State Park — had burned 74,604 acres through Monday, destroying 57 homes and resulting in the death of one firefighter. It is 60 percent contained. Also, the Sand Fire, in the Angeles National Forest near Santa Clarita Valley in Los Angeles County, has burned 41,432 acres since it began last month and killed two people.
It is 98 percent contained.
The riskiest time for fires in Southern California historically happens each fall, when Santa Ana winds turn areas into a furnace.
As grasses, chaparral and trees dry out, more risk increases. Major infernos like the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire, which killed 25 people and destroyed 2,843 homes, and the 2003 Cedar Fire and the 2007 Witch Fire, which together burned nearly 3,500 homes in San Diego County, all began in October.
“Here we are in mid-August,” said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for CalFire, “but it’s not until September and October when historically we see the largest and most devastating fires.”
