Light, fleeting rain hits north state
‘Every little bit helps’, fire captain says
CHICO » After last week’s record-breaking high temperatures for this time of year, a small but welcome storm blew over Northern California, bringing wind and rain with it.
Scattered showers moved across Chico and Oroville on Monday, though the storm is not expected to last through today.
Cory Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office said the rain would likely pass by Monday night and temperatures will once again head back to the mid to upper 70s on today and Wednesday, though Wednesday is expected to have some more clouds.
“We’ll continue to see shattered showers throughout (Monday) evening, but after that it should be drying out,” Miller said. “The precipitation will diminish pretty quickly, and it will be dry the rest of the week.”
Miller said Thursday and Friday will likely see highs in the 80s again. He added that this storm likely won’t bring snowfall to Butte County.
“The snow level is generally around 5,500 to 6,000 but we could see a bit of accumulation above that,” Miller said. “We might see nothing. There are better chances of snow up near I-80 South.”
Fire and moisture
While the little bit of rain may not make even a dent in the California drought, the rain could at least push back a little against potential fire risk.
“It helps,” said Cal Fire-Butte County Capt. Jacob Gilliam. “Every little bit helps.”
It’s still too early to know exactly what impact the light rain will have on the brush and other fire fuels, but Gilliam said there is a good chance that the foliage will see an uptick in moisture, even if it is small.
The way Cal Fire-Butte County conducts fire fuel moisture samples comes down to manzanita trees. Gilliam said crews conducting the surveys
find manzanita trees at different elevations and look for leaves growing off of the dry, “old growth” limbs.
Leaves from these limbs are removed and then weighed. Once the weight is recorded, the leaves are put in an oven to dry. Surveyors remove the dry leaves and weigh them again to determine the moisture percentage.
The most recent survey was done March 15, at which point the moisture level was around 89 percent. Gilliam said once this number drops to 80 percent
or lower, the moisture level is considered critical. The latest test was done from a tree in Forest Ranch, at roughly 3,000 feet above sea level.
Moisture at 100 percent would be considered a oneto-one ratio.
“When it drops below 80 percent, that is considered critical fire behavior and that happened last year around July 25,” Gilliam said.
Despite the dropping moisture level based on the March 15 test, Gilliam said there is a chance that this will go up based on some of the precipitation. The next test is roughly two weeks out.
“I think we will see an
uptick because plants will suck up some additional moisture from the ground
this time of year,” Gilliam said of the springtime plant behavior.