Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
When the National Weather Service lists the 'average' temperature or rainfall for the date, it means the average of the last thirty year period. Every ten years the average is recalculated using the previous 30 years. The new averages are now available, using the daily data from 1991 to 2020. The previous averages were from the data 1981-2010.
These maps show the differences from the 'old' averages to the 'new' averages. The maps show the data for the summer, and summers are clearly getting warmer and drier (but not exclusively. A few pockets in the upper Midwest are cooler, and parts of California are wetter, meaning summer thunderstorms have increased.)
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Log off and get outdoors!
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Even I can predict summer precipitation for California- little or nothing. That is the definition of a Mediterranean Climate.
I think the fire issue is not summer, which excluding the coast, is usually warm and dry; its spring and winter that drive fires. Starting off summer with a huge moisture deficit is not good.
I'm currently climbing peaks in the Humboldt-Toiyabe NF in Southern NV, and they already have a campfire ban in place. I know it's not a popular opinion, but there is simply no excuse for allowing campfires out of developed front country campsites in Inyo at any time this year.
I was up in the Spring Mtns (outside Las Vegas) last Thursday, Kyle Cyn to be exact. I arrived and smelled smoke. There was a unattended campfire with a 5" x 30" log smoldering and a 3" bed of ash probably from the night before. Used all and any liquids (including a beer they left opened by the fire ring) we had to put it out... *SIGH* People!?
Last year there were several reports on the Trinity Alps Wilderness Facebook group of unattended fires and one report by the USFS of a campground fire at a trailhead escaping and burning a little over one acre. Fortunately, they were able to respond quickly and put it out. I really don't understand the fascination some people have with a campfire. Couple that with a complete disregard for fire safety, and you have a bad situation.
I've put out 3 abandoned campfires in the past 3 years, carrying water back and forth in hiking bottles. And people from out of state don't even know about your campfire permit, let alone care. If Inyo allows campfires outside of developed front country campsites with metal fire rings this season, they ought to be held liable along with the instigator if a campfire leads to a forest fire. And we're still in a respiratory pandemic.
Colorado announced they plan to aggressively fight wildfires this year, trying to get them out while they're smaller. This is not the year for CA or the USFS to decide to let fires burn for the health of the forest or because they start somewhere remote and aren't initially threatening structures or something. We saw how well that worked out the last couple of years.
