For a third straight year, California’s fire season is ramping up when it should be winding down. After an onslaught of wind storms and flurry of blazes, large swaths of the state are now extremely dry and primed to burn until winter rains arrive to quell the danger — when and if they do. Just a month ago, it seemed like California might avoid another bad fire season. Showers swept over the far northern part of the state, snowfall blanketed the slopes of Lassen National Park , and much of the state got a blast of wintry air. But then that jet stream pattern shifted east, and three weeks of dry October windstorms followed, plunging California into a severe fire season — one that could last well into November, and possibly […]