The worst California drought in recorded history has stressed out the trees. That makes them more vulnerable, for example, to bark beetles, which suck out their sap and kill them by the million. The dead trees produce fuel for wildfires, which in turn are harder to fight because the state’s reservoirs are depleted, which means fire-fighting helicopters have to fly further and further away to refill their tanks, which gives the fires more time to spread.
California has wildfires every year. But with the drought, the fires started earlier this year. It’s not unusual for the Eastern Sierra area of California to see snow during a typical February. What is highly unusual is having one of the largest wildfires of the year during that month, destroying 40 homes and kicking off a historically early wildfire season.
Cal Fire, one of the main organizations that handles wildfires in the state, responded to nearly 300 incidents last week alone.
