California’s 2008 fires have burned more than double the amount of land that the 2007 fires burned, with nearly 1 million acres now accounted for as having been consumed by flames.
Described by Governor Schwarzenegger and other state officials as ‘the worst single fire event in California’s history,’ the 2008 fires have been collectively named “The Northern California Lighting Series” by Cal Fire.
It was a perfect storm of historical and environmental conditions that primed the forests and chaparral of this region so prone to fire for the month-long conflagration that has blanketed much of the North State in heavy smoke.
Following two years of below-normal rainfall, and snowmelt runoff this year at only 55% of usual levels, spring this year was the driest on record for many parts of the State.
San Francisco received only 10% of its normal 5.18 inches of rain between March and May, and continued dry weather in June turned the land into a tinderbox.
On Wednesday June 4, Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought and issued an executive order directing the Department of Water Resources to transfer water to the worst affected areas. The Governor’s statewide drought declaration was the first since Governor Pete Wilson’s in 1991.
 Against these dry weather conditions stood California’s modern history of fire management. As Chris Bowman wrote in the Sacramento Bee on July 8th, “Analysis of tree rings and oral histories of American Indians and Euro-American surveyors suggests that the cobalt blue skies typifying the Sierra today were more the exception up through the 19th century.”  Wildland fire suppression in California began in the early part of the 20th century and has led to a build-up of fuel wood in the forests. UC Berkeley researches have reported that, “An average 4.4 million acres burned annually in California before 1800, compared with an average 250,000 acres [from] 1950 through 2000.”
Following the Governor’s June drought declaration, California fire and forest agencies warned residents of the potential for wildfire, and the annual brush cutting requirements and fire prevention restrictions were enforced.
On the weekend of June 20, however, the seemingly inevitable occurred when dry thunderstorms covered the California coast, with lightning striking approximately 6,000 times across central and northern parts of the state. Nearly 1,000 fires began immediately.
Facing burning homes and forests, the evacuation of people from what would eventually reach eleven counties, and  the continued spread of the fires, on June 26 the Governor sent a letter to President Bush requesting a federal  declaration of emergency for California. The President complied on June 28.
Hot, dry weather worked against firefighters, culminating in a heat wave that began July 7, with inland temperatures reaching well above 100 degrees. On July 5, Schwarzenegger addressed  the public. “...[T]his state is very prepared for fire, [but when you have] 1,700 fires igniting over 14 days...One never has resources for 1,700 fires. Who has the resources for that? Something is happening, clearly. There’s more need for resources than ever before...it’s fire season all year round.” On July 9, President Bush expanded the state of emergency declaration to allow state and local first responders to receive additional federal and FEMA funds, and on July 17th he arrived in California and toured affected areas in Marine One.
According to Cal Fire, since June 20, 15,131 federal, state, and local personnel, 799 engines, and 80 helicopters have worked to contain 2096 wildfires. Over 7,000 structures have been threatened, and 250 burned. With the price tag for the 2007 fires by some estimates surpassing $1.5 billon in insurance losses and firefighting costs, the tally for this year’s fires are expected to far exceed that.
At press-time, all but 34 of the fires sparked on June 20 have been contained, and the remaining fires are on remote federal forest land and pose little threat to homes. Junction City residents, however,  remained under a mandatory evacuation order as of Sunday, as did a handful of residents near Dry Lake in Humboldt County. Air quality in the North State remains very poor, with low visibility widespread and some areas enduring record pollution levels.
Fire officials, including Pete Munoa, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, are cautiously optimistic that the cooler weather this week will help bring an end to the 2008 fires.
“The weather pattern, if it holds the way it is now, we should be able to get a foothold around these fires,” Munoa told the Associated Press.