Fire experts in the state are worried, The San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this month, “because January is a time of year when the northern reaches of the state normally are too wet to ignite.”

“It’s unprecedented for us to do this in January,” said Battalion Chief Mike Giannini, whose Marin County Fire Department is one of the first to be called upon to send aid north.

“We’ve sent crews this early in the year in the past to Southern California, because their fire season never seems to end,” Giannini said. “But not up there. Not to places like Humboldt, which has coastal, high-humidity, forested types of conditions we would normally equate with low fire danger.”

All of these conditions, particularly those in mid-to-nothern California, where a large percentage of U.S. food is produced, have implications far beyond the state. As the Al Jazeera report continues:

“We’re in the middle of what potentially is looking like a huge catastrophe,” said Ryan Jacobsen, chief executive of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. “We’re looking at some very harsh realities, as far as water allocations.”

“Possibly hundreds of thousands of acres of land will go fallow,” Jacobsen said.

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