July 15--On the southern slopes of Mount Diablo, the high grass is so dry, brown and crisp, it's like you can smell the fire danger.
In the central Sierra forests, the pine needles are so brittle that they crunch under your steps.
Across much of the Bay Area, Northern California and the Western U.S., rangers at parks and national forests are holding their collective breath every time a flame is lit.
Fire danger is in the red zone and will stay that way until the fall rains come, roughly the next 60 to 75 days, probably into late September. Restrictions on campfires and smoking, and warnings for those who run OHV vehicles or cut firewood have been posted across the region.
Following the second straight winter with sub-average rain and snowfall, the California Department of Forestry warned earlier this year that conditions were in place for a big season for wildfires.
Instead, two short periods of rain in early summer stalled the fire danger in Northern California until now.
As the week started, the biggest fire burning in Northern California is only 572 acres, the Kyburz Fire in Eldorado National Forest.
Compare that with the bad fire years, when fires consume upward of 300,000 to 500,000 acres, or 1987, the "Summer of Smoke," when 747,000 acres burned in California.
To make it through the next two months, many restrictions are now in effect.
In the Bay Area, for instance, smoking is banned on all trails in the region's 275 parks and recreation areas. At most parks with campsites, campers must cook with stoves, not fires, and in national forests, campfires are restricted to fire rings. Bans on campfires are in effect in many wilderness areas.
In a campaign started last week called "One less spark," the Forest Service issued warnings to OHV drivers and firewood cutters to carry fire extinguishers and shovels, to not drive vehicles over high grass, and use extreme caution at all times.
It has been a great start to summer, but rangers fear a lightning strike, a blazing hot exhaust pipe from a truck parked over tall grass -- or a blowing ember from an illegal campfire -- could ignite the next inferno.
Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle's outdoors writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @StienstraTom
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