By Zeke Barlow and Tony Biasotti
Ventura County Star (California)
Copyright 2007 Ventura County Star
All Rights Reserved
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — If dry skin and frizzy hair weren’t enough to clue you in to our recent weather conditions, just ask Bob Pinkerton about them.
“Holy moly, is it ever dry,” said Pinkerton, a Santa Paula lemon and avocado farmer who has been dealing with Mother Nature’s manic weather for the past few months, watering his thirsty crops much more than he normally would this time of year. “It’s unbelievably dry.”
He’s not the only one noticing the low humidity and lack of rain.
Across Ventura County, allergists, farmers, water agencies, firefighters and even hair stylists are seeing the impacts of an exceptionally dry winter that has had less than one-quarter of the average rainfall. Humidity levels have dipped into the teens along the coast, which is more accustomed to levels around 60 percent this time of year.
“We are on track to have one of the driest years on record,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We are playing with loaded dice, and they are coming up withdrought.’”
Storms that normally hit Southern California have dumped precipitation on the Pacific Northwest and along the Rockies but left this corner of the country high and dry. And that El No that was predicted to drench us?
“El No at this point is a no-show,” Patzert said.
The Ventura County Fire Department has been busy chasing brush fires around tinderbox-dry hillsides that are usually wetter and less fire-prone this time of year.
“This is not our typical fire season because we normally aren’t dry this late,” Fire Capt. Barry Parker said.
The National Weather Service has issued 30 red-flag warnings a caution of prime fire conditions since September, up from 22 during that period of 2005-06 and just six in the rain-soaked 2004-05 season. The Fire Department’s periods of high alert don’t correspond exactly to the red-flag warnings, but they are triggered by the same factors: heat, humidity and wind. Fuel moisture levels in the county are at 63 percent just a hair above the critical level of 60 percent. This time last year saw fuel moisture levels nearing 80 percent.
In Los Padres National Forest, fuel levels are below the critical stage and the grass that is normally green is brown.
“We haven’t really got out of the fire danger because it’s dry and we haven’t gotten the amount of rain we need to,” said Juanita Freel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Farmers are feeling the dryness, too, especially when compounded with the recent freeze that caused an estimated $280.9 million in damage to crops.
“Mother Nature hasn’t been too kind to us this year,” said Earl McPhail, Ventura County agricultural commissioner. “Trees are in shock, and they don’t know what is going on.”
Pinkerton said that having to water in a time of year when he normally doesn’t is eating away at his bottom line. And his trees don’t much care for the cold, either.
“When it gets dry like this, the cold is brittle, the wind is brittle and the trees get brittle,” he said. “Trees are just like we are when we get brittle, we go downhill.”
Dr. Mary Gianos, a Camarillo allergist, said people are feeling the effects, too.
Allergy complaints
She’s seen an usually high number of patients complaining of increased allergies. People without allergies can experience congestion as well as bloody noses, she said.
While most water agencies in the county are dealing with the lack of water in the short term, the dryness couldn’t come at a worse time for Calleguas Municipal Water District, which is the largest provider of urban water in the county. The district’s usual source of water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has dried up for January because the MWD has stopped service to the county while maintenance is performed on some facilities. But the dry weather has intensified residents’ water usage as they water lawns that would normally be getting rain.
“This year has been the perfect storm,” said Eric Bergh, manager of resources for Calleguas. “We are seeing summer demands in the dead of winter.”
He urged everyone to limit water use, hold off on watering landscaping and practice conservation whenever possible.
Jim Kentosh, manager of resource planning for United Water Conservation District, said that while his district is doing fine with water, if the drought continues, it could be problematic for the federally endangered steelhead trout, which depend on running rivers for spawning.
Lt. Chris Long with the California Department of Fish and Game said the lack of water doesn’t affect forest animals until later in the summer, when creeks may dry up if water is scarce.
The dry weather is affecting taxpayers now, though.
Special alerts costly
Every time the Ventura County Fire Department goes on “Plan Two” alert when the risk of a wildfire is very high it costs $22,000 for a 10-hour period and $53,000 for a 24-hour alert, said Tom Kasper, a fiscal manager with the department. “Plan One,” the lower alert level, costs the department $4,000 for a 10-hour alert and $9,400 for a 24-hour period.
The department doesn’t keep track of how many alerts it calls, so there’s no way to tell what the total bill is for this fire season. But it’s likely that the cost is higher than it’s been in the past few years, Kasper said.
The department can ask the state to reimburse it for unexpected costs, but more commonly it asks the county Board of Supervisors for more money.
“It looks like we’re going to have to do that this year,” he said.
The department uses a “burn index” that takes weather conditions into account and, if necessary, sets an alert level to match it.
“At each level, we change our staffing,” Parker said. “We add dispatchers, we add extra captains, we assign fire prevention people, we assign telecommunications people on standby. We will add an additional helicopter, we’ll deploy our bulldozers, and we’ll add planning and logistics people.”
Many are hoping that the dryness will be a thing of January, and come February, it will be a memory of the manic winter weather.
“The big question is will the dry pattern continue into spring?” said Doug Lecomte, a drought specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate prediction center. “If it continues until April, we’ll have problems.”