Efforts to Fight the Dixie Fire Hampered by Hot, Dry Weather

Crews managing the Dixie Fire in Northern California have made some progress in recent days, but weather conditions forecast for this week will make it tough for crews already working around the clock, fire officials said.

“All in all, it’s been productive these last few days,” Kyle Jacobson, a fire official, said during a news conference Monday night. “It’s still a very difficult firefight. The weather that fuels conditions can create extreme fire behavior, but they’re in there doing everything they can.”

The Dixie Fire, the second largest in the state’s history, has burned nearly 490,000 acres and is 22 percent contained as of Tuesday morning, according to the New York Times wildfire tracker. More than 14,000 acres have burned in the last 24 hours.

There are a handful of other fires across Northern California, including the McFarland Fire at 33,000 acres burned, and the Monument Fire at 58,000 acres. Wildfires — intensified by drought and climate change — are the largest source of potentially deadly air pollution in the state.

Hot and dry weather conditions this week won’t make battling flames easier for firefighters, Rich Thompson, an incident meteorologist, said during a news conference Monday night. Temperatures are expected to reach the 90s and 100s across the fire area on Wednesday and Thursday, he said, adding that there would be low humidity and gusty winds up to 20 m.p.h.

Toward the end of the week, a chance of thunderstorms may produce dry lightning strikes, possibly sparking more fires, he said.

“This is the environment that our firefighters are facing,” said Rocky Opliger, another fire official. “We’re probably six to eight weeks ahead of normal fire season — even the severe, significant fire season we had in 2020 — and we have angry fire on a landscape that makes it very difficult to contain these fires and control these fires.”