Dixie Fire Largest In CA So Far In 2021 @ 143,000 Acres 7/24; Spot Fires 5 Miles Ahead Of Fire Front
As California’s fire season rages on and firefighters take on multiple blazes, the Dixie Fire has become the state’s largest wildfire this year to date and is driving smoke into the Sacramento Valley. The Dixie Fire is burning on the border of Butte and Plumas counties, in the burn scar of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire. It has rapidly expanded to 142,960 acres (223 square miles), growing nearly 40,000 acres since Thursday morning.
Although most of the smoke from the fire has pushed east into Nevada, small amounts drifted south into the Sacramento area Friday afternoon, affecting capital residents for the first time since the fire began July 14.
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Waters said that drought conditions have created high levels of fuel for the fire not typically seen until the fall. The high energy from the fire is also causing the fire to send up plumes that blow through the air and ignite some distance away in a phenomenon called spotting. Waters said the Dixie Fire is spotting up to 5 miles, the largest fire spotting distance he has seen in his multi-decade career. Meteorologist Julia Ruthford had a similarly grim outlook on weather factors influencing the fire.
Temperatures in the region have been warm and dry for the past several days, and temperatures are expected to increase into the weekend while humidity remains low. Wind levels are also expected to pick up, and are forecast to blow along the Feather River Canyon and toward populated areas during the evenings. “I really wish I had better news to tell you, something good to put in the forecast, but it looks like we’re going to be really looking for a very critical next three days coming up,” Ruthford said.
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https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article252976513.html
