Photo: David McNew/AFP via Getty Images A firefighter sprays a burning tree near Midpines, northeast of Mariposa, Calif., on July 23. Photo: David Odisho/Bloomberg via Getty Images Destroyed property is left in the wake of the Oak Fire in Yosemite National Park as it chews through the forest on July 23. Photo: David McNew/AFP via Getty Images A structure burns on Jerseydale Road amid the Oak Fire on July 23. Photo: David McNew/AFP via Getty Images A hotshot crew marches along a burning forest as the Oak Fire in Northern California ripped through thousands of acres on July 23.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A forest is incinerated by the Oak Fire near Midpines, northeast of Mariposa, California, on July 23.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A firefighter stands on the deck of a home as the Oak Fire moves through the area on July 23 near Mariposa, California. In photos: A firefighting aircraft drops retardant ahead of the Oak Fire on Jnear Jerseydale.

Studies show climate change is leading to larger, more intense wildfires in much of the West, while also increasing the instances of days that are conducive to large blazes.

Above average temperatures and dry conditions are providing the fire with ideal conditions to spread rapidly, with little relief in sight. Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: The blaze is happening amid an extreme, long-lasting drought in California that is also affecting much of the West.

About 2,000 firefighters are tackling the Oak Fire as aircraft and bulldozers assist, AP notes.

Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County as evacuation orders were issued for more than 6,000 residents across the Sierra Nevada foothills, per AP. After igniting on Friday, the wildfire underwent 'explosive growth' Saturday, reaching 6,555 acres. The latest: The Oak Fire in Northern California grew to more than 15,600 acres and was 0% contained as of Sunday night, per Cal Fire. Sixty percent of the state’s land area is classified by the federal government as being in extreme drought.A wildfire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size over the weekend as hot and dry conditions hampered efforts to contain it, authorities said. But a combination of rising temperatures from climate change and an abundance of ignitable vegetation - including tens of millions of trees that were killed during a previous drought a decade ago - have made the state’s forests particularly vulnerable to fire. However, July is still early in the state’s traditional fire season, which runs through the summer and well into autumn, when the threat rises of more potentially lethal wind-driven wildfires.Ĭalifornia forests have always burned during the dry months.

The Oak fire is by far the largest wildfire in the state so far this year, besting the Washburn fire, which burned 4,900 acres, according to a tally by Cal Fire. Last year at this time, the state was battling the Dixie fire, which burned nearly a million acres - more than 60 times the area of the Oak fire - and crested the Sierra to burn down the eastern slopes of the mountain range, a relatively rare occurrence. But so far this year, the state has managed to avoid the type of megafire that it has experienced in years past. The Washburn fire is now all but extinguished.Īs California fell deeper into a second year of drought in the spring, officials warned of a potentially catastrophic 2022 fire season across the state’s desiccated landscape. That blaze started earlier this month and at one point threatened the park’s Mariposa Grove of sequoias, some of the world’s oldest trees. The fire closed a highway leading to Yosemite, which is still recovering from the Washburn fire.

California wildfires