From NWCG :
*** High Risk for N to NE Winds & Very Low RHs in the Sac Vly/Foothills Mon Night through Wed and Mid Coast Mendocino late Mon Night & Tue with Moderate Risk for Isolated Dry Lightning in the NE Today ***• Troughing over North Ops today will move east as a strong & very dry upper level ridge will build along the coast Mon & Tue then shift inland and remain centered overhead for the remainder of the week.
• Isolated to widely scattered mixed wet & dry thunderstorms this afternoon & evening with strong outflow winds. The most likely area of thunderstorms development is the Mt Lassen convergence zone vicinity including Lassen, Plumas and Washoe Counties with isolated storms also possible in Modoc County and a very slight chance extending into the NW Mtns as well.
• Breezy W-SW to NW winds of 20-30 mph will develop this afternoon & evening favoring coastal gaps and eastern areas with inland Min RHs generally in the teens, 20s, 30s & 40s. Locally breezy N to NE winds of 15-25 mph will develop the Sac Vly and channeled terrain areas along the Cascade/Sierra west slopes tonight and continuing into Mon morning. RH recoveries will be good NW & NE though will remain moderate to locally poor along central & southern slopes & ridges.
• Temps will warm rapidly through the week with Heat Wave conditions from Tue-Sat, widespread poor to very poor overnight RH recoveries and strong thermal belt impacts keeping nighttime temps unusually warm as well.
• NW winds of 20-30 mph will favor western and northern areas Mon afternoon & evening then turn N to NE Mon night locally gusting 25-40 mph and spread south through the Sac Vly and along the Cascade/Sierra west slopes through Tue morning accompanied by rapid drying.
• Gusty northerly winds will continue Tue with RHs dropping to 5-15% across much of North Ops including near coastal areas and continuing to be quite low through much of the rest of the week.
• Breezy NE winds with minimal RH recoveries will return for Tue night through Wed morning with lighter general N to NW winds during the following afternoons, shallow W-SW coastal gap winds in the Greater Bay Area vicinity and more limited N to NE winds through channeled terrain areas during the following nights.
Scary deal with high heat, low RH and gusty winds…
Big dip in RH in Vacaville. 34% down to 11%… North winds coming up now.
I was up in Tahoe over the weekend and got a chance to collect some green vegetation samples at 6,000’, 5,000’, 4,000’, 3,000’, and 1,000’ elevations along Highway 20 on the way home.
I used them this morning for a Lookout wildfire education video this morning about live fuel moisture.
Cliffs Notes: Brush above 3,000’ is pretty much in its peak growing phase right now, has a lot of moisture in it, still. Fires in these areas with a lot of green brush and not a lot of dead fuel (e.g. recent burn scars) will not likely carry very well once they fall out of alignment or run out of slope.
I’ll weigh the samples and dry them to get the actual moisture values for another video - this one is more down and dirty…
https://youtube.com/live/YrRfS6So5EY #firescience
I thought this graphic gave a pretty good representation of what you found with your fuel moisture. The “red predicted acres” is slowly but surly creeping up into the timber I remember years passed we were into the purple already.