It’s now August, and it remains an unusually quiet wildfire season for the North State. Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit has responded to 54 fewer incidents since the beginning of the year, or 163. Only 354 acres have been scorched so far. That compares to 16-hundred-35 for the same period last year, with 904 due to one blaze, the Rices Fire, which was south of Dobbins. Meanwhile statewide numbers are the lowest in 25 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Cal Fire Battalion Chief Robert Carvalho says they’ve responded to 38-hundred-80 incidents, compared to 45-hundred-57 a year ago. But acreage is actually up by 22-thousand, or just under 96-thousand. And with crews less busy, he says it allows more personnel to be available to more quickly keep a fire from exploding out of control…

click to listen to Battalion Chief Carvalho

Carvalho says the five-year average has been 351-thousand acres. Research by the Bay Area News Group shows that the five mildest fire seasons, over the last 30 years, followed winters with above-average precipitation, even with all the additional fuels. But Carvalho says while better moisture levels have helped, especially in the upper Sierra, Cal Fire will always preach caution to property owners…

click to listen to Battalion Chief Carvalho

The research also shows that four of the five worst years since 1993 occurred after winters with below-normal precipitation, with 2020 the most catastrophic and 2021 the second most damaging.