It rained on Sunday in Redding, but this wasn’t just any rain.
More rain drenched Redding on Sunday than had ever fallen on any other Sept. 15 in the last 131 years.
The National Weather Service recorded .59 inches of rain at the Redding Regional Airport on Sunday, breaking a record that had stood since 1976, when .36 inches of rain fell in Redding. Then, from midnight until 3 a.m. Tuesday, another two-tenths of an inch of rain came down.
The weather service began keeping rainfall records in the Redding area in 1893. The weather service recorded rainfall closer to downtown Redding when the previous record of .36 inches was set. The agency began taking temperature and rainfall measurements at the current location at the airport in 1986, according to the weather service.
Along with that good soaking, Redding has also benefitted recently from recent below-normal temperatures, which are expected to continue through the week, according to Dakari Anderson, a weather service meteorologist.
Sunday’s high temperature was 81 degrees, coming in at 12 degrees below normal.
Sunday’s storm also brought plenty of lightning. There were a total 336 lightning strikes across the North State, Anderson said, with most of those in Shasta, Tehama and Glenn counties.
For the rest of the week, the weather service said there was a 30% chance of rain Monday afternoon and evening. The forecast called for partly cloudy skies Tuesday in the morning and in the afternoon. The chance of rain was expected to increase to 50% in the evening and into Wednesday morning, the weather service said.
The chance of rain declines to 20% Wednesday night, the agency said. High temperatures are expected to be in the 70s through Wednesday and then rise back up into the 80s on Thursday and Friday, said the weather service.
Does the rain and cooler temperatures mean this is the end of fire season?
The one-word answer: Nope.
The rain “is helpful, but our fire season’s definitely not over,” said Jas Shaw, a spokesman for the Redding office of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Cal Fire has gone to or assisted with 543 fires in Shasta and eastern Trinity counties since Jan. 1, Shaw said.
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The rain came in overnight and wet down the vegetation, but a “wind event” is expected later this month that will dry out the grass, brush and trees in the surrounding foothills and mountains, she said.
The Redding-based National Interagency Coordination Center for fire agencies in the North State posted a map on its website Monday that indicated a low risk of fire danger in the Redding area on Monday. The mountains surrounding Redding rated a “little to no risk” of fire danger, the agency’s fire risk map said.
For Tuesday through Friday, the potential for fire drops to “little to no risk” for nearly all of the North State. By Saturday, the fire potential increased slightly to “low risk,” according to the map. Surrounding mountains remained in the green of “little to no risk” of fire potential, the map said.
Despite the lower risks indicated by the maps, Anderson, of the weather service, was clear that there is more fire season ahead.
“We’re expecting conditions to dry back out later this weekend, leading into early next week, and this transitional season can be pretty tricky just because we’ve had the whole summer’s worth of drying and fuel drying out over the area,” Anderson said.”So no — I wouldn’t say this marks the end of our season,” said Anderson.
Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Sunday rain over Redding going down in the record books
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