SAN DIEGO — With the extra rain this winter, some are wondering if it will lead to a dangerous fire season. There’s worry that all the extra vegetation will die and become fuel for wildfires.
News 8’s Steve Price takes a look at San Diego’s most destructive fires to verify whether wet winters actually lead to more fires.
Steve’s report looked back at several fires including the Cedar Fire of 2003, the Witch Creek and Harris fires in 2007, the Bernardo/Cocos and Poinsettia Fires of 2014.
In looking at rainfall totals for the rainy seasons around each fire, this report verifies that wetter winters do not always mean bigger fires; those tend to be related to Santa Ana wind events, but it is true that we tend to get more fires after wetter winters.