Could The Park Fire Become The Largest In California History?

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The Park Fire is now the fourth largest in California’s history, at 400k acres, which pushed it just ahead of the SCU Lightning Complex in August 2020, which was 398k. To become the third largest fire, it must top the Mendocino Complex in July 2018, which burned 459k acres. At that point, it would need to grow rapidly to reach second or first place. Heat will intensify the conditions for fires this year.

The second-largest fire in California history was the Dixie fire in July 2021, which burned 963k acres. The largest was the August Complex in August 2020, which burned 1 million K acres.

The Park Fire could grow in the next several days because of the weather. According to 5 ABC, the fire is only 25% contained. “Wind and lightning from thunderstorm weather could drive erratic fire behavior in challenging terrain full of dense, dry fuels. Temperatures in the region on Friday were also in the triple digits and were forecast to stay hot and dry in the days ahead.”

The August Complex burned in the Coast Range of Northern California in Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Tehama, Trinity, and Shasta Counties. It started as 38 lightning-caused fires. The fire was active from August 16, 2020, to November 12, 2020. The exact area burned was 1,032,648 acres. Rain in early November helped slow its spread.

Based on the pace of the August Complex, the Park Fire may have to remain active for another month. At this point, that is at least possible. In the meantime, the risk of wildfires in California and the Northwest remains high.