It's Thursday. Unusually hot nights are making it harder to fight wildfires. Plus, the L.A. Clippers' home arena is a hot ticket for art.
So far this year, 3,543 wildfires have broken out in California. While that's a big number, it's in line with recent experience: In the previous five years, an average of 3,659 wildfires had erupted by July 10. What's unusual and worrisome this year is the size of the blazes. As of Wednesday, more than 207,000 acres have burned across the state, compared with the five-year average of 38,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. "We're already experiencing a disproportionately high number of acres burned," Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference yesterday. "We're seeing, unsurprisingly, predictably, because of the rains — those late rains in particular — a lot of grasses turning into brush fires." Two wet winters in a row have helped pull the state out of a terrible drought. But those heavy rains also promoted the growth of grass, brush and other vegetation that is now drying out and becoming highly flammable, especially during the current record-breaking heat wave. So when a fire erupts, it's able to spread rapidly through vegetation that is primed to burn, Joe Tyler, Cal Fire's director, said at the news conference. "We need to be extra cautious in these hot, dry and windy conditions," he said. My colleague Austyn Gaffney wrote about how overnight heat in particular was making some of these recent fires difficult to extinguish. Fires usually quiet down a bit at night as the air gets cooler and the relative humidity rises. But in the heat wave, overnight temperatures have been unusually high, leaving us without this natural damper. The largest fire currently burning in California is the Lake fire in the mountains above the Santa Ynez Valley, which has grown to about 29,000 acres since it ignited on Friday. That fire has swelled significantly after dark, growing by 5,000 acres on Monday night and by 2,000 on Tuesday night, Austyn reported. It was only 16 percent contained as of yesterday evening. California's third-largest current fire, the Shelly fire in the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border, began on July 3 and was not at all contained as of yesterday evening. "The recoveries at night are not coming up," John Chester, the operations section chief for the California Interagency Incident Management Team overseeing the Shelly fire, said in a briefing. Nighttime temperatures in that region would ordinarily fall to the mid-50s in July, but over the last few days, they have stayed in the 70s and 60s for most of the night. For more:
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And before you go, some good newsThe Michelin Guide on Wednesday added 13 restaurants to its list of best California restaurants, including ones in Healdsburg, La Jolla and Santa Barbara. Warning: These picks will make you hungry. Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword. Halina Bennet and Luke Caramanico contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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California Today: A furious start to California’s fire season
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