Publication Date July 23, 2016 | The Christian Science Monitor

Santa Clarita Sand fire: Why are California wildfires getting worse?

United States
Smoke from a nearby wildfire looms over Los Angeles on Friday, viewed from Monterey Park, Calif. Photo: Nick Ut/AP
Smoke from a nearby wildfire looms over Los Angeles on Friday, viewed from Monterey Park, Calif. Photo: Nick Ut/AP

Extremely dry conditions in California caused yet another fire this week, with a fire in Santa Clarita burning a path through 5,500 acres this weekend.

“It is unusual to see a fire grow this quickly,” fire ecology and management expert Max Moritz of the University of California, Berkeley, tells The Christian Science Monitor by phone. “There’s almost no containment and it is going to be very difficult to control. Normally you’d see these rapid growth rates with Santa Ana winds, but that’s not the case with this fire"