2017 Fire Season

Cal Fire is reporting that the Canyon Fire near Lower Lake in Lake County was declared fully contained late yesterday. The fire, off of State Highway 29, was held to 14 acres.

The nearby Kugelman Fire, also near Lower Lake and State Highway 53, is also 100 percent contained at 45 acres.

The Cold Fire burning between Winters and Lake Berryessa is now 99 percent contained. The fire has burnt more than 5,730 acres.

Updated 9:00 a.m.

Cal Fire says the Mountain Fire, which broke out Tuesday afternoon near Keswick in Shasta County, is now 80 percent contained.

#MountainFire [update] near Iron Mountain Road, south of Keswick (Shasta County) is now 35 acres and 80% contained. pic.twitter.com/djqPFjpDSN

In June 2016 the U.S. Forest Service said it identified an additional 26 million dead trees in six southern Sierra Nevada counties, bringing the total to 66 million dead trees statewide. Aerial survey photo in Sequoia National Forest taken May 2016.

USFS R5 State and Private Forestry / Courtesy

Updated Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, at 3:04 p.m.

A three-day old wildfire burning in the rugged hills between Winters and Lake Berryessa in Yolo County continues growing.

The U.S. Forest Service is now leading the battle against the 4,700-acre blaze, replacing Cal Fire. The fire jumped a containment line Thursday, and continues burning westward, into Napa County and toward the lake.

Update August 3, 9:20 a.m.

The 99 Fire, which burned 550 acres south of Chico Tuesday afternoon, was declared 100 percent contained by Cal Fire as of Wednesday morning.

Update August 2, 5:03 p.m.

Air tankers are making drops on a wildfire in Butte County sparked by a vehicle accident.

The fire exploded Tuesday afternoon to 550 acres over the course of two and a half hours. Authorities have apparently stopped the fire’s spread, at least for now.

The forest fire burning up the Big Sur coast has destroyed 57 homes according to Cal-Fire, which has expanded evacuations in the area. The Soberanes fire has reached 40,000 acres in size and is considered 18 percent contained. One person, a bulldozer operator, has been killed. Two thousand homes remain threatened, and more than 5,000 firefighters are battling the blaze.

An 1,800-acre wildfire burning near Fresno is threatening 400 structures. Evacuation orders remain in place as the blaze continues moving in a southeasterly direction. More than 1,300 firefighters are on scene.

Northern California has been largely spared by the fire gods this year. But our luck may soon run out.

Along with refilling nearly empty reservoirs, winter rains significantly raised soil moisture across the North State. That suppressed early season wildfires, but also powered thick carpets of emerald grass to cover the landscape.

A month of summer temperatures though, changes everything.