A change in weather may help wildfire battles on Central Coast

The Central Coast appears to be entirely aflame, but lower temperatures and higher humidity predicted this week could help firefighters as they work to put out the flames.

According to PG&E meteorologist John Lindsey, weather conditions will improve Monday due to a combination of lower temperatures, higher humidity levels and a marine layer along the coastline. There will also be less wind, which will help too, Lindsey said.

According to Lindsey, “We’re seeing really severe fire behavior” — and it could be due to the record amounts of rain we’ve received this year. On Sunday evening, crews were battling the Alamo Fire east if Santa Maria, the Whittier Fire near Lake Cachuma and east of Goleta, the Parkfield Fire near San Miguel and the Stone Fire east of Santa Margarita — and that’s just on the Central Coast.

“It’s a pretty high rain year, so we got tremendous amounts of vegetation combined with really hot temperatures and really low fuel moisture levels and these fires have just exploded,” Lindsey said. “It’s really astounding how fast these fires have spread.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2017 at 8:07 PM with the headline "A change in weather may help wildfire battles on Central Coast."