Experts no longer think of California fire seasons, seasonally. In recent years, many see every year as just a new fire year.

“No matter where you live (in California), you should always keep planning and preparing for the possibility of a fire happening in your area,” said Chelsea Burkett, media liaison with Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Climate change is pushing the season to start earlier and end later each year because of rising temperatures and decreased rainfall. Fire season tends to end later in the year, once heavier rain begins to fall, but because climate change often delays rain, fires are increasingly left burning throughout the winter months.
“Climate change is changing our wildfire environment, and that’s really pushing wildfire season to be nearly year-round,” said Justin Stockman, public information officer with the Santa Clara County Fire Department. ”That’s where I think public opinion is right on the money.”
Traditionally, the fire season in Northern California extends from late spring into fall beginning June or July and running through late October or November, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association. However, as fire activity has since spread year-round, it now experiences peaks in certain months depending on weather patterns, Stockman said.
Typically, the more destructive fires occur in September and October because of a combination of vegetation drying throughout the summer and “intense, dry winds” that blow through the state in the fall, the WFCA states.
This year, wildfire risk has already been shown to be climbing early in the season across both Northern and Southern California. The U.S. drought monitor shows Santa Clara County does not have additional drought risk for the upcoming season, but many bordering counties toward the east and south are classified as “abnormally dry” or a degree higher at “moderately dry.”
Fire risk surrounding the South Bay mostly occurs in the hills bordering the valley, with the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west and the grassy Diablo Range toward the east. With their different vegetative landscapes, both environments pose unique risks, Stockman said. As compared with easy-starting but often manageable grass fires, fires often start less frequently in coastal Santa Cruz but risk burning stronger because the larger trees can act as a sustaining fuel source.
Fire risk is primarily determined by wind, fuel source and human activity, such as lit cigarette butts, unattended campfires or fallen power lines.
“If we have periods of high heat and/or low humidity and combine that with major wind events, we really create a recipe for fire that is almost unstoppable,” Stockman said.
While urban areas like west San Jose or Sunnyvale may not see frequent vegetation fire ignition, fires may start in less populated areas and spread to other regions depending on the driving factors behind the fire, such as high wind speeds.
Burkett said South Bay residents should be vigilant about taking fire prevention measures.
Cal Fire engages in wildfire response, education and prevention. The local division, the Santa Clara Unit, serves the Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, western Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
“We see fires in areas like the San Jose foothills all the time, every year, multiple times a year,” Burkett said. “The public maybe doesn’t hear about a lot of them because we try to mitigate incidents as quickly and efficiently as possible.”


Burkett said Cal Fire aims to contain all fires to 10 acres or less, which means many incidents they respond to may not always make the news.
Cal Fire provides resources to educate individuals and families on how to help their communities and protect themselves by creating defensible space, or a fire-proof buffer zone, around their residences and reviewing other fire prevention and preparedness resources.
California residents can check the locations of High or Very High Fire Severity Zones provided by Cal Fire to see if their residences fall under the classification, which would require homeowners to have on-hand documentation of a compliant inspection.
For residents of Santa Clara County, individuals can sign up for emergency alerts at AlertSCC and download the emergency tracking and alert app Genasys Protect.
De Anza students, faculty and staff receive local emergency notifications, such as fire notices, through the Rave Alert notification system. Individuals can check if they have the right number on file in the system on the De-Anza Foothill emergency preparedness site.
“We send it out to everybody’s cell phone, emails and leave a voicemail too. And if you go onto your MyPortal, it’s gonna give you a notification there too,” said Daniel Acosta, Foothill-De Anza chief of police.
Acosta said the evacuation maps posted in all De Anza rooms are outdated, which the police department is planning on re-updating. He said this makes signing up for the emergency alert system all the more important.
“The emergency notification is usually what comes up first, and that’s where individuals will find out whether they’re (the emergency) is on campus or not,” Acosta said. “We keep on repeating that people should always check and make sure that they have the right number on the notification.”
