California will see its first monsoon storms of the season, raising fire concerns

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Set us as preferred California’s first storms of the monsoon season are expected to arrive this weekend, raising concerns about heightened wildfire risk.The storms could reach Central California as early as Sunday, bringing gusty winds across the Sierra Nevada and a 10% chance of lightning but producing very little rain, said Carlos Molina, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford.Some of California’s largest recorded blazes have started with dry lightning strikes, including the August Complex fire, which in 2020 became the state’s first to burn more than a million acres.The mountain thunderstorms are expected to continue Monday and Tuesday but should be accompanied by wetting rains that dampen fire risk, with about a tenth of an inch of precipitation, Molina said.The moisture will be confined to the Sierra and the Owens Valley side of the range and is not expected to reach the San Joaquin Valley, which is likely to see triple-digit heat, he said.Monsoon storms can be unpredictable and trigger flash flooding in desert areas, so people should remain aware of their surroundings, he said.There’s a 10% to 20% chance of lightning in Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, primarily in mountain areas, starting Sunday and lasting through Thursday, said Spencer Fielding, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.Those areas could also see rain, but forecasters won’t know for sure until it gets closer, he said.

Temperatures are expected to rise, with some areas reaching 10 to 15 degrees above normal, and conditions will also likely be more humid due to the monsoonal moisture, he said.The monsoon is a switch in wind direction that occasionally pushes subtropical moisture into California in the summer, said Dylan Flynn, meteorologist with the National Weather Service i...