Completed in April 2021 as the skies gave us the last rain for many months, we were told to expect a particularly fierce fire season again in 2021. The 2021 fire season indeed outpaced 2020, which itself was the largest season in the state’s recorded history. As of July, more than three times as many acres had burned compared to the previous year, with drought, extreme heat, and reduced snowpack contributing to the severity of the fires. By August, the state of California was facing unprecedented fire conditions as multiple wildfires raged on. While fall and winter rains quell fires, the burned areas face an increased risk of postwildfire landslides.

The modern Western fire regime isn't simple. It's an evolving nexus of longer fire seasons, warming climes, grossly overcrowded forests, drought, and a variety of different factors unfolding in different places.