![]() ![]() On March 20, Vice President Kamala Harris announced $197 million in federal grants through the administration’s wildfire defense grant program. Further funding would be provided for prescribed fire implementation, firefighter training, and wildfire detection. ![]() It would also create a program at the Department of Energy to "ensure that critical facilities remain active during wildfire disruptions". The proposed bill would provide at least a quarter of a billion dollars in funding for forest restoration and wildfire resilience in 20 locations of more than 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) each, coordinated by the Forest Service. Senate entitled the Wildfire Emergency Act, recognizing the "threat of wildfire" as an emergency in the Western United States. On January 31, California senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (as well as senators Steve Daines of Montana and Ron Wyden of Oregon) introduced a bill to the U.S. The allocation was reported to represent a significant increase in funding for programs like tree clearing, brush thinning and removal, and controlled burns in Southern California, whose four National Forests previously received about $1.2 million annually for those purposes. ![]() Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the allocation of $930 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to ten western states, including California, for fuel reduction programs and other measures to curtail wildfire risks. Offshore wind events such as Santa Ana winds mean that large fires are possible year-round, but their frequency is most heightened in the fall, when fuels are also driest. In Southern California, fire season typically peaks in late spring through early fall, when Pacific moisture recedes. ![]() Activity usually continues until late fall brings Pacific moisture to the northern portion of the state, though northeast wind events may pose a threat. In Northern California, fire season typically peaks in the summer with increasingly warm and dry conditions and aided by occasional dry cold frontal passages that may bring winds and/or lightning. Critical fuel moisture refers to the point at which fuel characteristics-like vegetation mortality or dryness-are favorable for large fire growth. Ĭal Fire predicted that "critically dry fuel moisture alignments are not likely to be reached for any great length of time or over a larger area" between March and June 2023. Some researchers noted that the resulting vegetation growth could prove dangerous if dry and warm conditions return during spring and summer, obviating the gains from early storms, but in general, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), increased precipitation reduces the risk of a worse wildfire season. Season outlook Climate Ĭalifornia saw a series of powerful atmospheric rivers between December 2022 and March 2023, which much improved drought conditions in the state and boosted the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada to more than 200% of average for the date. The 2023 fire season follows the 2022 season, during which the number of fires and the resulting burned acreage were both below average. This is below the state's five-year average of 1,722,059 acres (696,893 ha) burned during the same period. According to statistics published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), as of December 31, 2023, a total of 7,127 fires had burned a total of 324,917 acres (131,489 hectares). state of California during the calendar year. The 2023 California wildfire season is a series of significant wildfires that burned in the U.S. ![]()
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