Excessive Heat Watch Issued for Parts of California, where Wildfires Have Burned 1.5 Million Acres

As of yesterday, the National Interagency Fire Center reported there were 75 active large wildfires in the West, involving over 2 million acres. Although wildfires are burning in 15 states, California accounts for a disproportionate share of the activity, with 19 total blazes that have consumed over 1.5 million acres. Firefighters there have had success in recent days containing wildfires, assisted by favorable weather conditions. Unfortunately, those conditions aren’t expected to last and, moreover, a record heatwave is predicted for the next few days. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat watch for Friday through Monday for San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties, and from Saturday through Monday in the Bay Area. Lynne Tolmachoff, a representative for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the weather conditions increase the likelihood of new fires. “With this heat coming, any new starts could create problems,” Tolmachoff said. “We’re staffed up. With the holiday there’s going to be a lot of people out recreating. We’re asking people to stay safe and don’t start new fires.” California’s most destructive blazes include the SCU Lighting Complex Fire (as of yesterday, it had burned 391,578 acres in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties); LNU Lightning Complex Fire (375,209 acres in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Solano, and Yolo counties); and the CZU August Lightning Fire (85,467 acres in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties). Read more at UPI.