Wildfire Risk Likely To Increase Into Late September As Hot, Dry Weather Builds Across West

The western United States remains a tinderbox, and wildfire conditions may worsen as September weather patterns progress. A persistent northward bulge in the jet stream allowed temperatures to soar to well above average and at times record levels in parts of the West this summer. That same weather pattern may return later in September. Most of the large wildfires in California that have burned 875,000 acres as of Aug. 28 are now mostly contained. However, multiple large fires in the Northwest continue to burn with with substantially less containment.