With the weather heating up and winds shifting, as of Thursday more than 14,000 firefighters are batting with wildfire up and down California, including a major blaze they hoped to keep out of the Lake Tahoe resort region.

The National Weather Service warned that onshore winds from the west and southwest were shifting to offshore, blowing from the north or northeast, and that fire weather watches will be in force in Northern California by the end of the week.

ALSO READ | ‘Smoke becoming a reality’: Residents, firefighters struggle to stop California fire

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Caldor Fire, the nation’s top priority for firefighting resources, expanded to more than 213 square miles (551 square kilometres) southwest of Lake Tahoe, while containment remained at 12%.

Since the beginning of the fire, which started August 14 and unexpectedly expanded, destroying the town of Grizzly Flat, assigned resources have increased to over 2,900 firefighters, 21 helicopters, 245 engines, and scores of bulldozers. According to ongoing damage estimates, 637 houses, businesses, and other structures have been destroyed.

There were 14 major flames statewide due to bone-dry conditions in the middle of a severe drought, including one that ignited Wednesday in Southern California, which has so far spared the size of wildfires that have plagued the north all summer.

According to experts, climate change has made the West warmer anddrier over the last 30 years and will continue to make weather more intense and wildfires more catastrophic.

Meanwhile, 65 miles (105 kilometres) north of the Caldor Fire in the Sierra-Cascades area, the Dixie Fire, California’s second-largest in state history at 1,167 square miles (3,022 square kilometres), was 45% contained. Almost 1,300 structures, including almost 700 homes, have been destroyed since the fire began in early July.

On Thursday, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported 88 significant fires burning throughout the country, primarily in Western states.

With inputs from the Associated Press