This year's wildfires are earlier, more frequent, and bigger than ever before - and they show no sign of slowing

Santa Barbara County Fire Dept. via Reuters

A huge fire burning in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California is the now the largest and most destructive of the season, which has seen over 2,000 fires so far.

As of June 25, the state has lost 650 acres more to wildfires than it had at on the same date in 2015, and almost 1,000 more than the average for this time period over the last five years.

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"This is going to go down as the most destructive wildfire in Kern County history," local fire chief Brian Marshall told the San-Jose based Mercury News.

The fire, known as the Erskine Fire, has already killed two people and burned more than 45,000 acres of land. On June 24, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the area.

Erskine and other fires aren't showing any signs of letting up, either: California (and the rest of the western US) is deep into a five-year drought that shows no signs of abating, given that 2016 is promising to be the hottest year on record. These dramatic photos show the extreme, ongoing devastation of this early fire season - and give us a glimpse into how bad future infernos may be.