Ava Kershner is a Multimedia Journalist and Producer at ABC 10News.
SAN DIEGO — The green grass on San Diego’s hills is a sight for sore Californian eyes, and not just here in Southern California.It's now the first time in 25 years that the entire state has been out of a drought.
That extra moisture in the ground can help in the short term when it comes to fire season; something fire crews say is pretty much year-round in Southern California.“You can see the green grass, the plants are green, and everything's starting to grow again,” said Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette.The start to 2026 was a rainy one, and excessive rainfall flooded areas across San Diego County, bringing new growth weeks later.Quite the opposite compared to January 2025.“We're coming off of last year where we had the historic fires in Los Angeles County,” said Cornette. “That was an extremely dry period. We had an extremely strong Santa Ana that was able to fan that fire very quickly.”Santa Ana winds are stuck in San Diego's forecast with wind warnings and advisories issued by the National Weather Service over the weekend.Gusts even reached speeds close to 80 miles an hour on Sunday in wind prone spots across the county.That combined with warm, dry air would normally elevate our fire risk.But there’s a factor keeping that extreme threat at bay.“Now we're starting to trend towards more of a normal weather pattern with our precipitation,” said Cornette.For the first time since December 2000, the Golden State is completely drought-free.A stark change from this time last year.“That means less fire danger. We're not completely out of the woods yet, but we are in a lot better spot than we were a few months ago,” said Cornette.While we have the green hills, Cal Fire says use the time to work on creating a defensible space around your home.So when the green turns back to gold, your property is protected.
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