‘We got lucky’: inside California’s strangely quiet wildfire year

Fewer acres burned this year, but the need for fire mitigation and the dangers posed by the climate crisis have not vanished

In California, a state that’s grown accustomed to months of smoky skies, mass evacuations and the ever-present fear of wildfire, 2022 felt unusual.

Summer came and went, the weather warmed and the hillsides yellowed across the state, while residents held their breath. But a giant blaze or siege of simultaneous infernos – the events that have defined recent fire seasons – failed to appear.