Northern California welcomes rain, but fire risk remains
Alan Riquelmy
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, at some 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, had 6.3 inches of snowfall Monday.
It’s a welcome sign for Andrew Schwartz, the lab’s director. Not just because it’s building the snowpack early in the season, but also because it helps reduce fire risk.
“It’s seeping into the soils,” Schwartz said of the snow. “With lower elevations, the rain does the same thing.”
The snow, which Schwartz said currently dips to 5,500 feet above sea level, doesn’t mean the end of fire season, but it helps.
Jesse Torres, battalion chief of communications for Cal Fire, said Monday’s rain is good, but he’s looking for wetting rain — precipitation that dampens fire risk. Rain on Monday, and more expected Wednesday through Friday, will reduce fire risk, though it’s unknown for how long.
“We no longer want to call it fire season,” Torres told Courthouse News. “We call it the fire year.”
Monday’s rain brought under a quarter-inch of precipitation to the greater Sacramento region. However, the higher the elevation, the greater the rain amounts.
Downtown Sacramento, about 30 feet above sea level, saw .19 inches of rain. A half-inch fell in Auburn, which is around 1,200 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The Central Sierra Snow Lab had 6.3 inches of snowfall, said Nathan Rick, lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Despite the rain, Torres has concerns that temperatures could at some point climb into the 70s. Even in this season, Torres has seen rain lead to new grass appearing. Days with higher temperatures, coupled with winds, could dry out vegetation and potentially lead to fires. Southern California is still experiencing temperatures in the 80s, he noted.
Another risk is burn piles, which are often used this season to remove unwanted vegetation, Torres said.
“This is the time of year where we get those escaped burn piles,” he added.
More rain expected this week for the Sacramento area could continue the reduction in fire risk.
“We’re looking at a pretty significant upper-level system moving in,” Rick said.
The Sacramento area is expected to get between 0.25 and 0.5 inches of rain between Wednesday and Friday. Schwartz’s lab at 7,000 feet could get another 12 to 15 inches of snow.
The rain and snow are wanted, but Torres also is looking at the long-term forecast. He said the weather service and other sources call for a warmer-than-usual winter with less rain.
“If that is true and that continues, we still have a threat of fire actually moving into the new year,” Torres said.
Michael Anderson, state climatologist with the Department of Water Resources, told Courthouse News that the state is at 37% of average rainfall at this point. However, California gets about half of its annual precipitation between December and February.
“They’re really the key that we want to keep our eye on,” he added.
Pivoting to the state’s reservoirs, Anderson said they likely won’t reach their low point for the year until next month.
The snowpack itself is like a reservoir in solid state. When it starts to melt during the spring, the water enters rivers and, eventually, state reservoirs.
California relies on its snowpack. Problem is, nature doesn’t always comply with the state’s needs,
It often takes until February for officials to know how well the snowpack is doing. Schwarz noted that this past January California was only at 21% of the statewide average. Late season storms helped bridge the gap.
While he’d like to see more rainfall to soak into the earth before the snow begins, he won’t turn down snowfall.
“We’re definitely sticking with the snow,” he said.