Heavy Rains Weren’t Enough to Stop Winter Fires in California

– The National Weather Service called the fast-moving blaze “surreal,” given the recent storms.

A fire in January? Californians have, tragically, seen that before.

But a fire in January after months of record-breaking rain? That’s far more unsettling.

A blaze that erupted on the Central Coast over the weekend seemed to stun even those intimately familiar with California’s ongoing drought and its increasingly year-round fire season. The National Weather Service’s Bay Area office called the fast-moving fire near Big Sur “surreal,” given the recent storms.

California saw heavy rainfall in the final three months of 2021, leading many to believe that the threat of fire would lessen for at least the next few months. But the latest blaze revealed a harsh reality: The drought has become so severe that even a series of torrential storms wasn’t enough to end it.

The land in many parts of the state remains extremely parched and, after an unusually dry January, apparently ready to burn.

Last year, California endured a brutal fire season triggered by unusually high temperatures and severe drought conditions. By the end of 2021, 2.6 million acres had burned across the state, a million more the annual average from the past five years.