Will heavy rains make the Pickett Fire burn scar slide?
Will heavy rains make the Pickett Fire burn scar slide?
Flash flooding is a major concern, especially when there is a fresh and large wildfire burn scar, such as in Napa's Pickett Fire area. On Monday a storm swept through the Bay Area bringing heavy rains and flooding concerns.
AETNA SPRINGS, California - People in the Pickett Fire region of Napa County got phone alerts for potential flash flooding on Monday.
Concerns with fresh burn scars
What we know:
Flash flooding is a major concern, especially when there is a fresh and large wildfire burn scar.
Those who've gone through so many fires in the last decade are not fatalists, but practical and always on alert.
In the daylight, wet from Monday's rain, the Pickett Fire burn scar is a vivid contrast of burned dry yellow-orange leaves, charcoal black tree trunks and ground. Some of the surrounding vineyards were singed or burned as well.
Already, burrowing critters are moving back in and we saw deer in the area.
Phone alerts
Locals got a phone surprise as the storm approached. "It was a National Weather Alert for a Flash Flood Warning and I was like, 'Oh, that's interesting'. At the time, it wasn't even really raining hard," said Angwin resident John Wheeler.
Though the rain came down really hard, there's a reason there was no mud flow and that's because of the kind of earth here. It's very, very porous and because of that, it has space in between to hold a lot of water and so it just soaked it up. But in a big atmospheric storm, if it gets too much water, then it slides.
Mudslides in this area?
"Well, we really don't have mudslides in this area because it's very rocky, very volcanic, so the water pours out of the mountains," said Aetna Springs resident Jeff Parady who continued, "It's always a concern, but we've had lots of rain over the years. It's not the first fire we're healing from, not the second or third; there've been several. This ground in this particular region here is pretty; a lot of rock in it, a lot of clay. But, nevertheless, anytime you get several inches in a quick amount of time, that's a concern no matter where it's at."
Here, where fire is and has been a way of life for generation after generation, rain is a good thing to see. "I'm always thankful when we get this first big rain because then I sleep better at night. But, I'm more concerned," said Wheeler.
We've had three previous years of ample, and sometimes too ample rain. This year, it came early and even volcanic soils can fail in repeated deluges.