California’s York Fire, the biggest in the state so far this year, expanded over a remote section of the Mojave Desert on Monday, covering more than 77,000 acres—or more than 120 square miles—prompting officials to close roads as the blaze threatens to scorch Califonia’s desert.
Yuccas burning in the York Fire in the Mojave National Preserve on Sunday.
The fire had grown to 30,000 acres at 0% containment on Sunday, swelling in size due to a combination of dry wood—or fuel—and high winds, which “created extremely challenging conditions” for firefighters, according to the Mojave National Preserve’s incident report.
Dry vegetation sun-baked in a series of recent heat waves has served as a “ready ignition source,” causing the fire to spread in “long-distance fire runs” with flames as high as 20 feet in a pattern described by the Mojave National Preserve as “extreme.”
After taking off on private land in the New York Mountains of the Mojave National Preserve—just over 50 miles south of Las Vegas—the York fire swept into neighboring Nevada over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported, posing a risk for desert wildlife, including bobcats and bighorn sheep, as well as California’s iconic Joshua trees.
No residents have been evacuated in the remote area where the fire is burning, though its blazes have destroyed three structures, including the National Park Service’s Kousch House, which had been eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Whether the fire will improve. Stephanie Bishop, a public information officer for the National Park Service, told the Los Angeles Times the wind had died down Sunday night, making firefighting efforts manageable around the blaze, though limited visibility up to a mile from a plume of thick smoke poses a challenge for firefighters, according to a Monday morning incident report.
The York fire is the biggest in California since the McCash fire, which burned nearly 95,000 acres in late August 2021. The McCash fire, outside northern California’s Marble Mountain Wilderness, was one of a string of massive wildfires in the state that summer, including the 963,000-acre Dixie fire and the 223,000-acre Monument fire.
After a string of major wildfires in California, including the Mosquito Fire that tore through more than 63,000 acres in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in September—the biggest of the 2022 season—California’s wildfires have been relatively quiet so far this year. Despite the recent heat wave, the state had been pummeled with a parade of severe winter rain storms and heavy snow storms earlier in the year, causing extensive flooding, resurrecting historically low water bodies and bringing record snowfall to the Sierra Nevadas. Those storms also helped alleviate a years-long “megadrought” in the state. The percentage of the state in “abnormally dry” or “moderate drought” conditions fell under 25%—compared to 100% that was in some stage of drought last year, including nearly 60% in either an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s U.S. Drought Monitor. On the other hand, the storms also accelerated springtime vegetation growth, increasing the amount of burnable brush on the ground required for a fire to spread.
22,325. That’s how many acres have burned in more than 3,600 California wildfires so far this year, according to Cal Fire. There have been no fatalities reported in those fires.
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