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Crews were continuing to battle two massive wildfires in Northern California on Saturday, with more residents ordered to flee their homes.
The Dixie fire had burned 181,289 acres and was 14% contained as of Saturday, when it prompted a new wave of evacuations for residents in Plumas County. At least 16 structures had been destroyed, and more than 7,000 were threatened, authorities said.
The fire was burning to the northeast through everything from timber to grasses, all of which are unseasonably dry, said Capt. Mitch Matlow, public information officer for the fire.
“This is more like what we would typically see in the late fall, at the end of the fire season before the rains come,” Matlow said. “The fuels got drier earlier in the season, which leads to more erratic fire behavior.”
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Crews were continuing to battle two massive wildfires in Northern California on Saturday, with more residents ordered to flee their homes.
The Dixie fire had burned 181,289 acres and was 14% contained as of Saturday, when it prompted a new wave of evacuations for residents in Plumas County. At least 16 structures had been destroyed, and more than 7,000 were threatened, authorities said.
The fire was burning to the northeast through everything from timber to grasses, all of which are unseasonably dry, said Capt. Mitch Matlow, public information officer for the fire.
“This is more like what we would typically see in the late fall, at the end of the fire season before the rains come,” Matlow said. “The fuels got drier earlier in the season, which leads to more erratic fire behavior.”
Insight: Wildfires exhibit wild behavior
Fire tornados, fire induced windstorms and dry lightning create new challenges in bone dry western forests.
By Matthew CappucciThe Washington Post
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Months remain until the peak of wildfire season in the western U.S., but hundreds of blazes have already torched more than a million acres, pouring smoke into the sky and offering an ominous warning of what’s ahead in the fall. Bone-dry conditions and anomalously high temperatures are fostering the perfect recipe for extreme wildfire danger, an issue that will only grow as the winds kick up in August and September.
It’s also making for extreme fire behavior, with rapid growth and spread of wildfires, several of which have grown large enough to create their own weather systems.
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