This fire season looked to be severe in April. The rainy period in May has at least delayed the fire season by a month in many areas, especially at higher elevations. The nearest dead fuel moisture monitoring station to the town I live in had readings of 12% moisture content in the 3-8" sized dead fuels. If the rains had not arrived we would probably be looking at 7 or 8% by now As a comparison lumber comes out of a kiln (drying facility) with 6-12% moisture content depending on the species.
Some of the wettest locations along the central and southern coasts were showing unprecedented low fuel moisture. Some locations in the Sierra foothills and coastal mountains did as well.
In the last 15 years I've seen what appeared to be epic fire seasons on paper, based on dead fuel moisture, that turned out to be quite inactive. Those years were 2004 and 2014.
Fire should always be on the minds of everyone in California no matter how severe the fire season. The U.S. Forest Service spends half of its fire budget in California. The state spends more money on it than the other 49 states combined. This is due to the climate, fuels and urban interface areas that in combination make for a very challenging fire management task here. Property owners should maintain fire safe zones around their homes no matter how the upcoming fire season looks.
People should always be conscious of how they operate off highway vehicles, how to properly extinguish campfires and what tools and in what conditions they trim back brush in. I would say that at least 50% of all campfires are not put out correctly. It is no surprise when fire start statistics are shown campfires come to the top portion of the list.
Predictions of fire seasons are meant to be fire prevention in nature. In spite of all the recent rain a dry summer and some Santa Ana winds in the fall might result in some serious fire conditions.
Rainy seasons often make the fall fire season at lower elevations more severe. The higher elevations have heavier fuels and are not as much of a factor when a wet winter and spring is experienced., In years of low rain and snowfall the heavier fuels dry out in the upper elevations and not as much of the lighter fuels in low elevations grow and die out. Thus, we can have significant fire seasons in both wet and dry winters and springs. The predictions of a fire season are based on each type of season and it might seem that no matter the situation those predictions are always significant, but we have to realize how diverse the vegetation and topography is in this state. This results in diverse fire seasons as well.
