![\"Rain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TPD-L-jb1013_rain_002.jpg\")
Rain falls during pickup time at Strawberry Elementary School in Santa Rosa on Oct. 13, 2025. Santa Rosa received 125% of its normal rainfall for the month of October. (John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\nThis autumn brought something that can be uncommon for much of California \u2014 a decent amount of rain in October.<\/p>\n
After years in which some of the worst wildfires in state history happened in the fall, a lot of people are wondering: Is fire season over?<\/p>\n
It depends on where you live, fire experts say. And simply put, there\u2019s more risk in Southern California right now than Northern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not yet seen enough rain in Southern California to end fire season,\u201d said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. \u201cBut we probably have in Northern California.\u201d<\/p>\n
January included historic, devastating fires in Los Angeles. Since then, it has been a relatively mild fire year statewide in California.<\/p>\n
Through Oct. 27, a total of 522,372 acres have burned statewide in areas overseen by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service. That\u2019s a drop of 40% from the previous five-year average of 1.3 million acres over the same time. A big part of the reason is the early onset of rain.<\/p>\n
Through Wednesday, Lake Lagunitas had received 3.53 inches of rain compared to 0.06 inches this time last year, according to records kept by the Marin Municipal Water District.<\/p>\n
In the South Bay, San Jose had received 2 inches of rain, more than four times its historical average for the month of October. Oakland had 1.64 inches, double its historical average of 0.84. Sacramento\u2019s total also was double the historical average, and Santa Rosa and San Francisco were at 125% and 113% of normal for the month.<\/p>\n
Farther south, Fresno was at 223% of normal, with 1.18 inches, and Los Angeles had received 252% of normal with 1.41 inches. But a few areas, including San Diego and Palm Springs, remain below normal. And nearly all of Southern California\u2019s rain came in one storm on Oct. 15. After that, temperatures have soared back up, hitting 97 degrees in Los Angeles in the past week.<\/p>\n
Rain falls during pickup time at Strawberry Elementary School in Santa Rosa on Oct. 13, 2025. Santa Rosa received 125% of its normal rainfall for the month of October. (John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. With forecasts for strong winds that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that 129 firefighters, 10 engines and three helicopters would be pre-positioned in case fires started in those areas.<\/p>\n
But in Northern California, the trend has been just the opposite.<\/p>\n
Cal Fire canceled a controlled burn planned for Wednesday at the Soquel Demonstration Forest in Santa Cruz County aimed at reducing overgrown brush. The reason: Brush and trees were too damp.<\/p>\n
The day before, Cal Fire officials had planned to burn 52 acres in San Mateo County in a controlled fire east of Interstate 280 near Belmont and Crystal Springs Reservoir. They gave up after 6 acres because only grass and not heavier vegetation like coyote brush would burn, said Sarah Collamer, a Cal Fire forester who was overseeing the operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in fire season,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are getting small starts. They are going until we put them out. But the fire danger is greatly reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illustrating her point, on Oct. 23, a fire broke out east of downtown San Jose at Alum Rock Park. Cal Fire sent a plane to drop retardant on it. But it was put out at 10 acres and caused no damage. A grass fire that began near Altamont Pass in Alameda County on Oct. 26 burned 20 acres and was easily contained by fire crews.<\/p>\n
Moisture levels are key. As most campers know, wet wood doesn\u2019t burn. When California is in droughts and heat waves, moisture levels in plants plummet. After rains and cooler temperatures, along with higher humidity levels, moisture levels go up. Then, fires might start in grass, but they don\u2019t spread easily to damp brush and trees, particularly if there aren\u2019t strong winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now you could get a grass fire going,\u201d said Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Lab at San Jose State University. \u201cBut whether or not it will end up being a big fire is unlikely. We are seeing the hills green up already from the early rain. It looks like January right now in the East Bay Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, national experts say California is in good shape. The seven-day forecast from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, has \u201clittle or no fire risk\u201d for all of California except part of Southern California from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border where it is listed as \u201clow risk.\u201d And more rain is forecast in Northern California on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Fire experts disagree on whether there is an exact amount of rain each fall that signals the end of fire season. Often, supervisors of controlled burns wait until at least 1 inch has fallen, Clements said.<\/p>\n
Dan Cayan, a research meteorologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, published a study in 2022 showing that since World War II, 90% of the acres burned in Southern California have burned before 0.35 of an inch of rain has fallen in autumn. After that, fires can still start during winter dry spells and high Santa Ana winds, he said. But they are much less likely.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthern California is doing pretty well,\u201d he said. The dividing line this fall between wetter-than-normal and drier-than-normal runs through L.A. County. We\u2019ve had some slight rain in San Diego, but it has been nearly three weeks with nothing. We\u2019re still in a vulnerable situation down here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of California\u2019s worst wildfires have occurred in the fall, including the Oakland Hills Fire in October 1991; the Camp Fire in Paradise, in November 2018; and the Tubbs Fire in October 2017, which killed 22 people and burned 5,600 structures in Napa and Sonoma counties.<\/p>\n
After those fires, Cal Fire officials and many political leaders began saying that fire season is all year long in California due to warmer conditions from climate change.<\/p>\n
To some extent that is true. The devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena this year occurred in January, amid a long, hot, dry spell and winds that reached 100 mph.<\/p>\n
But in general, risk goes down when rains start, temperatures cool, and days shorten, experts say. Because of the damp weather this fall, Cal Fire officials have begun to relax backyard burning rules. Starting Oct. 17, they have allowed it in nearly every Bay Area county and all counties north to the Oregon border, under permits, when it was altogether illegal during the hot summer months.<\/p>\n
In winter, Cal Fire stations also reduce staffing from peak levels, although that has not started yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could still have 80-degree days with winds,\u201d said Capt. Robert Foxworthy, a Cal Fire statewide spokesman. \u201cThere\u2019s still a chance of wildfire. We\u2019re not expecting large damaging, destructive fires burning timber and brush because of how much moisture we\u2019ve received. But in some places there is a threat still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Pedestrians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SJM-L-RAINSTORM-1014-10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n
Pedestrians are reflected in shop windows as they walk in the rain in downtown Palo Alto as a storm arrives in the Bay Area on Oct. 13, 2025. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This autumn brought something that can be uncommon for much of California \u2014 a decent amount of rain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,443,643,181,23,100,180,19,535],"class_list":{"0":"post-35086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newsletter","17":"tag-weather","18":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}