After two mild fire seasons, California is bracing for whatever 2024 brings.

This year has already started in a worrisome way, particularly in northern Los Angeles County, where back-to-back rainy seasons fueled the growth of thick grasses and brush.

The recent Post Fire in the Gorman area burned nearly 16,000 acres in its first three days.

The fire is raging in steep, hard-to-reach areas, and CAL FIRE says that the gusty winds and warm temperatures are making the blaze even harder to control.

With climate change, California now has 78 more annual fire days than it did 50 years ago.

That's when conditions are ripe for fires to spark.

What else is different?

For instance, Southern California's coastal fires historically have been driven by desert winds, but no longer.

Vegetation along the usually moist coast is so parched that it doesn't need Santa Ana winds to start fires.

What's causing California's fires?

Arson and power lines are the major triggers.

Lightning-sparked fires, like the one that burned Big Basin Redwoods State Park three years ago, are a fairly recent trend in California.

Unpredictable and hugely powerful lightning storms bombard already dry and vulnerable landscapes.

Scientists say to expect more lightning nationwide as the planet warms.

The job of battling these larger, more stubborn California wildfires has become more complicated, fearsome, and deadly, straining the state's already overworked firefighters, and it's much, much more costly.

CAL FIRE's total funding for fire-related activities has grown from $800 million in 2006 to an estimated $3.7 billion just a few years ago in 2022.

Scientists and fire bosses are moving away from all-out suppression of every fire to an understanding that fire can be harnessed as a tool.

The benefits of fire, long part of the culture of Native Californians, are now a key component to the state's firefighting strategy.

For CalMatters, I'm Julie Cart.