Jul 20, 2008 3:12 pm US/Pacific
Rain, Lightning May Complicate Firefighting Effort
JUNCTION CITY (AP) ―
Scattered showers forecast for California's northern mountains Sunday won't likely extinguish stubborn wildfires still threatening homes but could mean more lightning for the charred region, fire officials said.
A low-pressure system moving in off the coast is not expected to bring enough precipitation to have any effect on several huge blazes that have burned for nearly a month, said Pete Munoa, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
A bigger concern is thunderstorms predicted to accompany the front as it moves across the state.
But fire officials said cooler temperatures mean lightning would not pose as much of a threat as a month ago, when storms sparked nearly 2,100 fires that have burned almost 1 million acres.
"The weather pattern, if it holds the way it is now, we should be able to get a foothold around these fires," Munoa said.
In the rural town of Junction City, residents remained under mandatory evacuation orders for a third day Sunday as flames crept across the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The month-old fire had spread to nearly 87 square miles by Sunday and was 49 percent contained.
All but 34 of the fires sparked after a lighting storm on June 20 have been contained around the state, leaving nearly 1,470 square miles of destruction in what officials call the largest fire event in California history. Fires consumed roughly 1,563 square miles in all of 2007.
A handful of residents near Dry Lake in Humboldt County were still under orders to stay away from their homes as another remote blaze spread to more than 18 square miles. That fire was 60 percent contained Sunday.
Authorities say most of California's remaining fires are on remote federal forest lands and pose little threat to homes.
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