Chance of rain fades in fire-scarred Northern California

Hope for rain this week in wildfire-scarred Northern California is fading

California Wildfires (Noah Berger)

Hope for rain late this week over wildfire-scarred Northern California was fading Wednesday.

A trend of cooler and more moist conditions expanding from the coast into the interior had been expected to be followed by rain but forecasts were changing.

“Unsettled weather conditions will be possible late in the week and into the upcoming weekend, yet widespread rainfall is appearing less likely,” the National Weather Service office for the San Francisco Bay region wrote.

That moisture was instead likely to follow a trajectory into Southern California but still only bring a slight chance of showers.

More than 16,500 firefighters continued work to contain 22 major wildfires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Among notable progress, the 105-square-mile (272-square-kilometer) Glass Fire in the wine country of Napa and Sonoma counties was 58% contained.

This year in California, more than 8,300 wildfires have burned more 6,250 square miles (16,000 square kilometers), with 31 fatalities and nearly 8,900 structures destroyed.