According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a controlled burn is planned near Willits on Friday.
According to Cal Fire, personnel from the Mendocino Unit headquarters near Willits, called Howard Forest and located on Ridgewood Summit off Highway 101, will burn a practice fire at the facility on Aug. 23.
As reported in a press release, “The training fire will burn approximately 20 acres of grassland and provide firefighters with the opportunity to practice using a variety of tactics and tools in wildland firefighting.”
The burn is expected to begin at about 8 a.m. and end around 3 p.m. Cal Fire notes that the planned burn “will be conducted under strictly controlled weather and fuel conditions and that smoke and aircraft may be visible in the area.”
As for Friday’s weather, the National Weather Service predicts that “an unseasonably cold low pressure system will bring cool temperatures and measurable precipitation to the region Thursday through Saturday.”
For Friday, the NWS Eureka office is forecasting a “40 percent chance of rain” for Ukiah, with highs of only about 71 degrees and “possible rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch.”
For Friday night, the NWS is predicting a 60 percent chance of rain, with “new precipitation amounts between a tenth and a quarter of an inch possible.” There could be even more rain on Saturday morning, as the NWS is predicting a “40 percent chance of rain, mostly before 11 a.m. (then) the rain will taper off throughout Saturday as a high pressure system forms again, leading to another period of warm and dry weather next week.”
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