California’s rainy season is starting later in the year than it used to, extending the threat of wildfires into the cooler months when, in earlier decades, the fire season would be over. The findings are contained in a recently-released study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It finds the state’s wet season is beginning a month later than it did in the 1960’s and that the autumn months have become progressively drier. Jim Mathias, Division Chief with the Cal Fire Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit, says that’s borne out with more devastating fires in November and December, including the Camp Fire in Paradise…

But Mathias says another major reason wildfires have become deadlier is a lot of people moving out of cities to more rural, wooded areas, like the foothills…

And Mathias says that also means earlier maximum staffing at fire stations, with a growing cost for taxpayers. The weather shift has been predicted for a number of years by climate change models. The missing autumn rain also means the state has become increasingly reliant on heavier or more frequent winter storms to make up the deficit.