California fire season off to a furious start, and experts say it's just the beginning
Wildfire season in Southern California got off to an ominous start this weekend, with several fires sparking across Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ parched landscapes, highlighting concerns for much of the Golden State this summer and fall.On Monday, firefighters continued battling the Wolf fire near Banning, which had forced hundreds to evacuate.
The blaze had grown to 1,400 acres and was 10% contained, according to an update from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.At least two additional areas were ordered to evacuate overnight, officials said, on top of some 750 people who had already been put under evacuation warnings or orders Sunday.
An emergency shelter had been set up for evacuees at Hemet High School.The fire broke out as temperatures spiked in areas of San Bernardino and Riverside counties over the weekend.Though winds weren’t particularly strong or the humidity remarkably low, much of California’s landscape is primed to burn — after a below-average rainy season in Central and Southern California, vegetation is desiccated, setting the stage for an active fire season.
“Just because things have been so dry and we haven’t had that meaningful rainfall that we need, that’s why we’re starting to see fires about to break out,” said Sam Zuber, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego.“Things are just really dry out there.”Zuber said those triple-digit temperatures in the Southland’s deserts and high 90s for the Inland Empire will begin to fall through Wednesday, which could help ease some of the conditions for firefighters.But, she said, the landscape will remain bone-dry.Just this weekend, Cal Fire responded to nine new fires across the state, including multiple fires in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and up north.
The Wolf fire remained, by far, the largest.Cal Fire officials said Monday morning that crews made “good progress” on the fire overnight and expected to continue to pus...