Winds Stoke California Fires Already Burning at Record Clip By Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Sharp (OTC:SHCAY), dry winds have raised the wildfire threat across Northern California, which is suffering through one of its worst years for blazes in history. Low humidity and winds gusting as high as 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour) will create dangerous conditions through late Wednesday, said Emily Heller, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento.

On Monday, California broke a milestone of 1 million acres (405,000 hectare) burned, the earliest it has reached that mark in history. The rising risk of more fires prompted utility operator PG&E (NYSE:PCG) Corp. to say it may cut power to about 48,000 customers.

“Everything is just ready to burn,” Heller said. “We have a trough passing to the northeast and when that happens we get northerly winds which tend to dry out portions of our area even more.”  

California crews are battling 10 large blazes, including the Dixie Fire, the state’s second largest, that had grown to 604,511 acres as of early Tuesday on its way to destroying at least 1,180 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. To the south, the Caldor Fire has burned through 6,500 acres after explosive growth overnight that triggered mandatory evacuations. Across the Golden State, 6,511 fires have scorched nearly 1.1 million acres this year, destroying 1,770 structures. No deaths have been reported through Monday.

Firefighters are also battling a blaze that began Saturday in the hills east of Sacramento that is prompting evacuations. Temperatures will linger in the 90s Fahrenheit through the rest of the week in the Sacramento area, Heller said. In addition to dangerous conditions in California, red-flag fire warnings are also posted across parts of Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Air quality alerts due to smoke pollution have also spread across the West including through California’s Central Valley and covering almost all of Idaho and Montana.

(Updates with fire statistics in fourth paragraph.)

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