As autumn rain in California vanishes amid global warming, fires worsen
PARADISE, Calif. - This is a wet place by California standards.
It averages about 55 inches of rain a year, thanks to its prime location in the verdant foothills of the Sierra Nevada, which wrings rain out of Pacific storms.
But when the Camp fire sparked last Thursday, Paradise was parched. The area usually gets about 15 storms during the summer and early fall, adding up to 5 inches of rain. But this year, it got a measly one-seventh of an inch.
The vegetation around Paradise was explosively dry, resulting in the worst fire in California history that
