It wouldn't be a fire season without SOME big fires in the upper tier...lots of contingency set up just for that every year.
The Pine Ridge complex might be the first to hit 100,000 acres this year. But maybe not. It might just be an appetizer, so to say.
When the Payette, the Frank Church Wilderness, the Salmon-Challis, the Bitterroot start getting some real fires, then we will be in high fire season.
We're continuing to hold our breath down here in San Diego county. The normal California pattern is north to south, which makes it possible to surge resources one direction at a time. This year things are just sort of popping out all over.
Usually, we see our major blazes in the Sept./Oct. area. The usual precursor is fires at Camp Pendleton, where the Marines tend to set them off accidentally during training. That's sort of a handy indicator for fuel moisture, given its location near the ocean. This year, we started getting Pendleton fires in June.
Mostly, our savior so far has been reasonably high humidity levels. So far (fingers crossed), no Santa Ana winds, either. We had a really wet winter two years ago, giving us a lot of new fuel, and a nice dry winter this year, drying it out, so.....
That Morongo fire offers an example of just how significant a blaze can be, even if you don't have "optimum" fire conditions.
The fall Santa Ana's aren't going to be any fun at all down here.