Heat, heat and more
heat, that's what's on the way
Last Wednesday and
Thursday the temperature in Alturas hit 107 degrees, tying not only a
record high that stood since July 19, 1960, but a record high since temperatures
have been recorded in Alturas, according to Sue Becker, U.S. Forest
Service Hydrologist.
Normally, what saves
Alturas and Modoc residents is the cooling off at night. But last week
on Thursday it only cooled to 64 degrees and on Friday and Saturday only
to 55 degrees.
While it may not
get blazing hot over the next week, forecasters are calling for high 90s
through July 25. The good news in that forecast is the lows will drop
into the high 40s. But don't look for much precipitation, unless it comes
in sporadic thunder storms.
Modoc has been pounded
by lightning and high winds over the past week and several forest and
wild land fires are now being worked by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau
of Land Management and the California Department of Forestry.
Several reports of
major cloudbursts were reported, but in most cases they were confined
to relatively small areas. In the Blue Fire area around Blue Lake, a heavy
downpour was reported and residents along Parker Creek dealt with suddenly
high creek waters.
About three inches
of rain fell in the South Warners around East Creek in a bit over an hour,
campers told Wilderness Ranger Ron Barager.
The deluge resulted
in major sediment and mud flows down East Creek. The area was the scene
of the Blue Fire and with resulting ash, and no ground cover vegetation
to diffuse rain, the flows into the creeks were huge. Barager said a bridge
on Rodney Flournoy's property at the Campbell place washed out. It had
been in place since about 1914. Mud also covered some lawn areas on the
ranchsite.
"Jess
Valley seems to have absorbed all the mud and water that came down the
canyon," said Becker. "The gauge on the South Fork Pit River
just below Jess Valley barely registered an increase in flow from 103
cubic feet per second on Friday to 109 cfs on Saturday.
A fire camp has been
set up near the Modoc High School Gym and helicopters have been flying
out of the Alturas airport.
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