Videos: Massive California Wildfire Doubles in Size Overnight as Oregonians Grow Anxious Over Blaze

© AP Photo / Noah BergerA firetruck drives along California Highway 96 as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest, Calif., Saturday, July 30, 2022.
A firetruck drives along California Highway 96 as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest, Calif., Saturday, July 30, 2022.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.08.2022
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With weather conditions turning Northern California into a tinderbox, the McKinney blaze has quickly become California’s biggest wildfire of the year–and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
An uncontrolled wildfire currently raging in Northern California has exploded in size, with the US Forest Service reporting 0% containment as the inferno reached 51,468 acres by Sunday morning.
Fueled by temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, single-digit relative humidity, and gusts that have reached up to 60 miles per hour, the McKinney fire grew from 800 acres in Klamath National Forest on Friday night to a staggering 18,000 acres by Saturday afternoon. It then doubled in size overnight and was declared California’s biggest fire of the year on Sunday.
Now it seems it’s gotten so big, it may have taken on a life of its own. Time-lapse footage uploaded to Twitter shows heavy lightning strikes in the area after the smoke generated a huge pyrocumulonimbus cloud which one climate scientist estimated reached a height of nearly 10 miles.
At least 500 evacuation orders have been delivered in communities including Scott Bar, Klamath River and Horse Creek, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, and at least 100 homes have reportedly burned down already.
That total pales in comparison to what might happen if the blaze pushes just a few miles east to the city of Yreka, which has a population of around 8,000. A 19-year resident of the town reportedly told the Los Angeles Times that while there are “fires every year in the surrounding areas… here in Yreka this is the first time I have felt like it could possibly threaten the town.”

Meanwhile, the over 600 firefighters now working to battle the fire have struggled to contend with the scorching heat, and on Sunday, the US National Weather Service issued another excessive heat warning for “most of Siskiyou County in Northern California,” where the fire’s currently located.
As early as Saturday afternoon, smoke from the fire darkened the skies in southern Oregon cities like Medford, and on Sunday, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality advisory effective until August 5 for Jackson and Klamath Counties due to the health risks posed by the smoke.
With the totally uncontained blaze showing no signs of stopping just 15 miles from California’s northern border, there are serious fears it could threaten Oregonians more directly as well, and the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office announced they’ll be assisting their colleagues in California with firefighters, engines and water tenders in the fight to keep the blaze from spreading.
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