Mother Nature on steroids: Early signs point to devastating California fire season

Mother Nature on steroids: Early signs point to devastating California fire seasonRecord temperatures have exacerbated the state’s ongoing drought and triggered dry-lightning that started more than 700 fires, some in redwood rainforests and Joshua trees that do not normally burn. Firefighters had a grip on the three largest blazes on Friday in the San Francisco Bay Area but warned residents to prepare for fall winds that typically drive the state’s largest fires. With more than 1.4 million acres blackened this year, climatologist Zach Zobel said California was on track to overtake the nearly 2 million acres burned in 2018, when the state suffered its deadliest wildfire and the most acreage burned in records going back to at least 1987.