MENDOCINO Co., 5/26/20 — Two fires to report this afternoon: In the Deerwood area, near Ukiah, a small vegetation fire broke out off of Redemeyer Rd. The fire was less than an acre and firefighters made quick work of it. As of time of writing no aircraft had been sent to the fire. A Cal Fire spokes person said the fire had a slow rate of spread, and was less than an acre.
In Ukiah, off of Gobbi St. Ukiah Valley Fire responded to a structure fire around 1:30 p.m. and smoke was visible from Ukiah.
A record breaking heatwave is currently sweeping California, though it is particularly severe in the Central Valley and Southern California. However, the heat is drying out vegetation and leading to an increased risk of fire. Though May saw substantial rain storms, most of NorCal remains in a mild drought for this rain year, after a historically dry February.
Though we’ve definitely heard the accusations of media tendency towards overuse of superlatives, it is worth noting that in this era of accelerating climate change it has become routine for all sorts of climate records to be broken.
The weather conditions will also create the possibility of thunderstorms and even dry lightening later in the week.
As always, for the climate nerds out there, it’s worth reading Weather West, for more details.