August 2020 California lightning wildfires

The August 2020 California lightning wildfires (also referred to as the August lightning siege or August wildfire siege) were a series of 650 wildfires that ignited across Northern California in mid-August 2020, due to a siege of dry lightning from rare, massive summer thunderstorms, which were caused by an unusual combination of very hot, dry air at the surface, dry fuels, and advection of moisture from the remains of Tropical Storm Fausto northward into the Bay Area. These fires burned between 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km²) to 2,100,000 acres (8,500 km²) within a 2–3 week period. The August 2020 lightning fires included three enormous wildfires: the SCU Lightning Complex, the August Complex, and the LNU Lightning Complex. On September 10, 2020, the August Complex set a record for the single-largest wildfire in the modern history of California, reaching a total area burned of 471,185 acres (1,907 km²). On September 11, the August Complex merged with the Elkhorn Fire, another massive wildfire of 255,039 acres (1,032 km²), turning the August Complex into a monster wildfire of 746,607 acres (3,021 km²).

The three major Bay Area fires, the SCU, LNU, and the CZU Lightning Complex, collectively burned about 846,000 acres (3,420 km²) by mid-September 2020, destroyed 2,723 structures, and took 6 lives.