The wildfire along California's Big Sur coast (a beautiful stretch of mountains and beaches with very little development) is 5 percent contained as of Tuesday morning, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Spanning 550 acres, the fire's massive spread can be attributed to the area's most significant drought in recent history.

Seventeen days into December, rainfall is only at about 16 percent of normal monthly levels -- the lowest total since record keeping on the subject first began in 1915, according to the San Jose Mercury News. So dramatic has the weather been it led Larry Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey, to first express "shock" and then completely downplay the drought in the course of a few sentences during a statement he gave to the San Jose Mercury News.

"It's kind of shocking. The rain total for this year is less than Big Sur usually gets in December," said Smith. "It's definitely been dry, that's for sure."

The fire, which has displaced 100 people and burned down 15 homes, actually began sometime after the area's last major rainfall on Dec. 7. Nearly 2/3 of an inch of rain led Los Padres National Forest Supervisor Peggy Hernandez to reduce restrictions on outdoor fires, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Then, on Sunday, the Big Sur wildfire began.

Fortunately, cool weather is expected to arrive on Wednesday and Thursday and perhaps even a little rain. Likely, this will be the last wildfire for the year as the region enters its rainy season, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Some residents blame an illegal fire built on Buzzard's Roost Trail near where the wildfire is still burning. Los Padres National Forest Spokesman Andrew Madsen has done little to quiet those suspicions.

"You're getting pretty warm there...That investigation is active. They've got that whole area roped off," he said.