(Bloomberg) — California’s Caldor Fire moved closer to a popular alpine tourist destination in Northern California on Monday, prompting officials to order the evacuation of the resort town of South Lake Tahoe.
Officials in the Golden State abruptly expanded an evacuation order zone to include much of the southern edge of Lake Tahoe up to the Nevada border, according to a statement from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. A large section of the main highway leading into South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento was also closed.
Erratic and gusty winds were driving the fire burning in mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe closer to heavier populated lakeside communities.
The combination of a high-pressure ridge across the West and the building low pressure in the Pacific Northwest will lead to an increase in winds across the region, said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster for the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. That could fan the flames over the Echo Summit mountain pass and into the Lake Tahoe basin early this week. The National Weather service issued a red flag warning for critical fire conditions in the region for Monday and Tuesday.
Fire crews have struggled to contain the Caldor Fire, which erupted Aug. 14 on the hills east of Sacramento and has burned in rugged terrain with tinder-dry vegetation. The blaze has seriously injured two people, destroyed the town of Grizzly Flats and charred about 177,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. It was 14% contained as of Monday morning.
California and much of the West will remain hot and dry. The remnants of Hurricane Nora, which struck Mexico over the weekend, will cause heavy rain across Arizona and New Mexico, but that won’t come far enough north to blunt the fire threat.
(Updates with evacuation order for South Lake Tahoe)
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