Throwing cigarettes or used matches out a car window. Dumping burning embers from a charcoal grill at the back of the yard can blow them into a dry area and begin a fire. Basically, there are reasons for every citizen to be vigilant to prevent fires.
May 15, 2014
Doyle Rice
USA Today
Today, (click here) for the first time this century, the entire state of California is in a severe drought -- or worse.
That's according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that has tracked drought across the country since 2000.
The level of drought in California is "unprecedented" during the 14-year-history of the monitor, according to climatologist Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.
The three worst levels of drought are severe, extreme and exceptional: 100% of the state is now in one of those three categories: (23.31% severe, 51.92.% extreme and 24.77% exceptional.)
Exceptional drought encompasses central parts of the state, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area. San Diego and Los Angeles -- where wildfires have scorched 14 square miles this week -- are both under "extreme" drought conditions.
