I have no doubt as we get deeper into the fire season we'll see a lot more acreage burned. My point was we kept hearing how "fire season is going to be year round" and not only was this season on the low side, it was dramatically lower up to this point, off the charts lower.
I don't know what climate change is doing to increase hot dry winds in the fall, but certainly those winds have been around for as long as I've been alive. Keeping ignition down in those critical times is far, far more important than clearing brush on 1/10 of 1% of the land out there.
On another note, I was smoking a brisket (first one, turned out great) on Sat evening when I turned on my radio and tuned it to the local Cal Fire repeater (SCU Loma) and immediately heard a bunch of tones then a laundry list of assets being sent to the next canyon over, about five miles away. After the air support couldn't find anything, the ground crews ID'd the fire as a BBQ in the campground in the area...