A wildfire burning in southeastern California since Friday has crossed the Nevada border after growing to more than 80,000 acres.
Heat waves have spurred several wildfires around the globe, including Canada, Greece and California. Much of California has escaped a severe drought that plagued the majority of the state last year. Drought fuels wildfires by creating dry conditions. A wet winter in California eased much of the state's drought, but the resulting plant growth was expected to provide ample fuel for wildfires this summer.
The U.S. Drought Monitor Map shows that as of Tuesday, 6 percent of the state was suffering from moderate drought and 25 percent was experiencing abnormally dry conditions. Dry conditions were largely documented in San Bernardino County, where the York fire rages.
The York fire began Friday. It has since grown to more than 80,000 acres and is only 23 percent contained. The cause is undetermined. The majority of the fire remains burning in San Bernardino County, but a map showed that that it had crossed into Nevada.
InciWeb, an interagency incident information management system, reported a slight increase in fire activity on Monday evening. Firefighters anticipated another increase on Tuesday because of the "potential for high winds due to monsoonal weather behavior."
"Dealing with constant but unpredictable wind patterns can pose significant challenges for firefighting crews attempting to establish containment lines," the website said.
The winds can cause the fire to spread rapidly and unpredictably. Current weather conditions near the fire include wind, high temperatures, and some thunder and rain gusts to the northwest of the fire.
Weather conditions also have aided in firefighters' efforts. A heavy downpour of rain fell in the area briefly on Tuesday morning, which "moderated" the fire's behavior, according to the website.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no evacuations had been ordered, but several roads in the Mojave National Preserve were closed due to hazardous wildfire conditions and fire suppression efforts.
Newsweek reached out to the National Park Service's York fire line by email for comment.
Wildfires burned 4.3 million acres in California in 2020 and 2.5 million acres in 2021, according to statistics from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CAL FIRE. About 362,000 acres burned in California last year despite the extreme drought. Well-timed rainstorms and moderate weather kept many wildfires from raging out of control, according to a report by nonprofit news organization CalMatters.
This year, CAL FIRE statistics show that more than 95,000 acres have burned. The number is updated weekly and may not include all fires currently burning.
California's wildfire risk during the first part of the year was extremely low because of excess rain that saturated the state. Although beneficial, the precipitation spurred new plant growth. The excessive rain led to the first super bloom—prolific swaths of wildflowers and other small plants—since 2019, which can later dry out and fuel fires.
"We can expect a steady drying out of the fuels, as we call it, as we progress to the summer months," AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham previously told Newsweek.
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