California’s burning

New Scientist has a satellite picture of the fires and offers the following explanation.

The severity of the fires - the worst seen in the 45 years service of one fire chief - is being blamed on the concurrence of several factors. There has been no rain in Los Angeles since early May, meaning the region is extremely dry. On top of that, the last five years have seen drought conditions, while budget problems are reported to have led to insufficient clearance of brush.

Yesterday, Citizen Smash posted about the extent and impact of the fires. Today, he’s providing a rolling update. So far, there’s good news and bad.