Friday morning was a wet one in the Kern River Valley as early morning thunderstorms brought rain and provided a reset for firefighters.
- 23ABC spoke with Borel Fire incident meteorologist Pete Curran who said the storm originally created worry, with the potential for dry lightning in the area. Curran said thankfully the storm had no dry lightning and provided a slow, soaking rain which likely helped firefighting efforts in the valley.
- While the wet weather is a positive to firefighting efforts, Curran says if a storm puts out over .5" of rain per hour, it has the chance to be dangerous in burned areas, causing mudslides and debris flows
- Curran also noted that there is a chance for more rain in the forecast next week, but at this moment it is to early to give an accurate forecast.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
If it's raining on a baseball diamond, some might say "The baseball gods don't want us to play today," but on on an active wildfire, it can provide a bit of respite,
I'm Sam Hoyle your neighborhood reporter in the Kern River Valley.
The morning of Day 10 of the Borel fire saw cooler temperatures, higher humidity levels, and slow, but steady rain.
However, incident meteorologist Pete Curran says initial readings of the storm had the potential to cause more issues for firefighters in the area.
"Our concern today was for the potential for dry lightning, our original thought was since the atmosphere has been so dry like you described, an initial phase of the thunderstorms would be dry," said Pete Curran, Incident Meteorologist. "Thankfully, the dry thunderstorms did not occur overnight or this morning, so we ended up with showers and kind of beneficial slow, soaking showers."
While the rain is certainly a benefit to firefighters all over the area, it does have the potential to be dangerous to those working in the area if the rain starts to come down in a heavier capacity than it did Friday morning.
"Burned soil is what we call hydrophobic so that rain almost runs right off of the burned soil, so we have a rule of thumb and that is generally about a half inch of rain per hour is the threshold for burned soil of what could cause a flash flood or mud debris flow."
However, Friday morning's storm overall, in Curran's mind, was positive for firefighting efforts in the area.
"A day like today where we bring in cooler temperatures, higher humidity, beneficial showers, gentle rain showers, really is kind of a reset for us."
Talking with Curren at the Borel Fire Camp, he tells us the rain on Friday morning overall was a positive thing for fire suppression efforts, dampening the fuels in the area and likely slowing the spread of the fire. the rain being a benefit Friday, maybe coming back around the bend next week,
Curran says there's a chance for some wet weather to head back over the fire, but it's still too early to tell.
In the Kern River Valley, I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter.
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