Evidence from the 2021 season shows that California did, in fact, experience an extremely severe, arguably “hellish” wildfire season.

Key points:

• By the end of 2021, about 2.57 million acres burned in California across 7,396–8,800+ fires, with around 3,600+ structures damaged or destroyed and several fatalities and injuries. This area burned is described in official and summary sources as nearly 2.6 million acres, making 2021 the second‑largest wildfire year on record for California after 2020. (en.wikipedia.org)
• CAL FIRE’s own 2021 season summary notes an “unusually early start”, an ongoing drought, historically low rainfall and reservoir levels, and states that by July 2021 more than three times as many acres had burned compared with the previous year by that date, with drought, extreme heat, and reduced snowpack “contributing to the severity of the fires.” It describes the state as facing “unprecedented fire conditions” in mid‑August as multiple large fires burned simultaneously. (fire.ca.gov)
• The Dixie Fire alone burned about 963,000 acres, becoming the largest single (non‑complex) wildfire in recorded California history and the second‑largest wildfire overall in state history, destroying or heavily damaging entire communities (e.g., Greenville) and causing widespread smoke impacts across the western U.S. (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Caldor Fire burned roughly 222,000 acres, destroyed about 1,003 buildings, forced evacuation of more than 53,000 people, and is listed among the largest and most destructive wildfires in California’s recorded history. (en.wikipedia.org)
• National reporting at the time characterized 2021 as another “damaging western wildfire season” with California as a major focus, driven by severe drought and periods of extreme heat, and highlighted Dixie and Caldor among the emblematic megafires of the year. (ncei.noaa.gov)

Relative to typical pre‑2010 seasons, the combination of record‑scale fires, extremely large burned area (second only to the record‑shattering 2020 season), multiple large destructive incidents, mass evacuations, and smoke and air‑quality impacts across states is consistent with describing 2021 as a “really hellish fire season.”

Given these outcomes, Sacks’s qualitative prediction that the 2021 California fire season would be extremely severe and “hellish” is best judged as correct.