After disastrous years in 2020 and 2021, wildfire damage this season has been largely limited to the sparsely populated northwest corner of the state.
Cal Fire has reported 5,474 wildfires burning 257,407 acres (104,169 hectares) in 2023, similar to the same period of 2022.
The five-year average over the same interval is 6,142 fires and 1.2 million acres burned.
"We're really only a prolonged heatwave followed by a windstorm away from having major fires," Chavez said.
UCLA meteorologist Daniel Swain said climate change is going to result in more extreme dry years periodically interspersed with more extreme wet years.
Persons:
Daniel Trotta, California's, Tim Chavez, Nick Schuler, Michele Steinberg, Chavez, Daniel Swain, we'll, Swain, Shri Navaratnam
Organizations:
of Water Resources, Labor, California Department of Forestry, Fire Protection, Cal Fire, National Fire Prevention, UCLA, YouTube
Locations:
California, Western Canada, United States, Hawaii, Lahaina, Southern California