Climate Central: A wildfire exploded outside Los Angeles Thursday as record temperatures spread across California, where drought conditions are escalating as the state comes off its driest year on record.
A new update to the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that severe drought, the second-worst drought category, has spread across 62.7 percent of the California as of Tuesday. The previous week, severe drought was only affecting 27.6 percent of the state.
California recorded only 7.38 inches of precipitation statewide...