At least 85 wildfires torch 1.5m acres across drought-hit US west - The Guardian

Rick Carhart, a Cal Fire public information officer, said damage assessment crews have not yet been able to access the burned areas.

“From the beginning, [the Dixie fire] has been burning away from where the Camp fire burned,” Carhart said.

The blaze is burning in areas that are difficult for crews and engines to access, which is complicating containment efforts as more than 2,200 firefighters continue to fight the fire.

Smoke tapered the threat from those clouds over the weekend, Carhart said, but incident meteorologists have forecast that the conditions may be more likely through the beginning of this week.

The Bootleg fire, the largest wildfire in the west, which has burned more than 409,600 acres in Oregon, has also caused erratic conditions through the weekend, forming a tornado along its eastern perimeter, according to officials.

The smoke from fires burning across the west has blanketed the US, causing unhealthy air quality as far away as the east coast.

“Besides excessive heat, the dome of high pressure aloft will trap smoke from active wildfire areas in the west,” the National Weather Service Prediction Center said in a tweet on Monday.

Besides excessive heat, the dome of high pressure aloft will trap smoke from active wildfire areas in the West, shown moving clockwise around the high pressure in this forecast of near-surface smoke concentrations.