California is burning, and it's about to get worse

California is burning, but the worst is yet to come. As fire crews battle massive blazes across central California, a few are already worried about what October will bring. Historically, October is the season with the greatest fire hazard.

style="margin:0;padding:0;font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; word-wrap: break-word;">LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Rain usually returns to Central California in very small measures in October and the first real storms find the region in November. However, despite the break in the long, hot summers that are typical in Central California, it is October when the fire danger is at its worst.

Exacerbated by drought, the entire state is covered with grassland that is now reduced to kindling. Even the forests, usually green through most of the summer, are covered with carpets of brown and red from dead, dry vegetation.

These sights are common in October, but this year they appeared earlier than normal and the vegetation is as dry as it can possibly be.

October is a time when Californians like to be outdoors, particularly in the Central Valley since the temperature has finally broken from the hundred degree days of the summer and starts to dip into the 70s. Californians spend much of that time indoors, out of the punishing heat, so they're ready to spend the brief fall outside. This means camping trips and the hazard for accidental fires.

Historically, these have been devastating fires. California was ravaged in 1991, 2003 and in 2007 with massive wildfires that consumed entire neighborhoods. Those three fires alone burned over 6,000 homes.

Fires in California have already burned nearly a thousand residences, and it isn't even October yet.

The drought is what makes this season the worst of all circumstances because trees have less water in their systems, leaving them drier and more susceptible to burning than usual. Typically, trees tend to survive fast-moving wildfires, but after four years of drought, many are dead and others dying. These burning trees will catch fire and their embers can travel for miles.

Fires kill when they strike, but there's an added danger in El Nino years. El Nino means more rains, especially for Southern California, and land that has been burned of vegetation is no longer held in place. The rains cause landslides and mudflows which can destroy and kill as quickly as a fire, if not faster.

Between the natural disasters of drought, fire and floods, and the man-made disasters of pollution and mismanagement, California is rapidly becoming an unpleasant place to live for millions. This October may drive the point home for thousands more who could potentially lose their homes in disasters that could outdo anything we've seen so far.

All that's missing now, is a major quake.

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