More than 2 million acres – a modern-day record – have burned in California so far in 2020

More than 2 million acres of California have burned since the first of the year, a record since the agency began gathering such information from all areas in 1987, the State fire agency Cal Fire said Sunday.

Sunday morning, the burned acreage since Jan. 1 was at 2,094,955, agency spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff. Since then, a new fire broke out in the Angeles National Forest, she said.

“The number is certain to grow,” she said of the acreage tally.

Fires burning in the state this summer include the 375,209-acre LNU Lightning Complex fire burning in Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties, and the 396,624-acre SCU Lightning Complex fire in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara San Joaquin, Merced, and Stanislaus counties.

The previous record was in 2018. Cal Fire reported 1,963,101 acres burned that year, when the Camp fire in Butte County became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California, claiming 85 lives, destroying 18,804 structures, and burning 153,336 acres.

There have been eight fatalities reported and nearly 3,300 structures destroyed since a siege of nearly 14,000 lightning strikes in the state started August 15, causing more than 900 new wildfires, Cal Fire said Sunday.

There was no relief in sight Sunday evening.

About 25 separate fires were burning throughout the state by Sunday afternoon, Tolmachoff said. An estimated 14,800 firefighting personnel were spread throughout the state, which was being swept with record-high temperatures in low humidity in many areas, Cal Fire said.

Fire danger notices, from fire weather watches to red flag warnings, were being posted throughout the state for Sunday and through the early week, including red flag warnings for Los Angeles County mountains and through Monday evening and much of Inland Southern California  down through San Diego through Sunday.