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Light snow aids firefighters in California
Los Angeles, Nov 02: Weary firefighters braved welcome rain, snow, and near freezing temperatures in the mountains of southern California yesterday, as mother nature drenched wildfires that had raged for more than a week and gave hope the blazes could be contained more quickly.
Los Angeles, Nov 02: Weary firefighters braved welcome rain, snow, and near freezing temperatures in the mountains of southern California yesterday, as mother nature drenched wildfires that had raged for more than a week and gave hope the blazes could be contained more quickly.
Temperatures have plummeted by some 60 degrees fahrenheit (15 c.) in the last two days, from around 90 degrees (32 c.)to around 30 degrees (-1 c.), and heavy rains and snow that arrived Friday night and carried through into Saturday morning proved a boon to fire crews.
Mike Mcgroarty, Deputy Chief of Fire Operation for California's Office of Emergency Services, said, ''the weather has been very very good to us over the last 24 hours.''
''It looks like (Southern California) is going to have some really good humidity over the next several days,'' he added at a media briefing.
He said the fires had ''pretty much slowed and in some cases have stopped.''
The dramatic weather shift could mean the fires would be contained about three days sooner. While officials reported on Friday night that the six fires still burning through the southern portion of the state were at least 25 percent contained, the picture on Saturday more was much brighter, prompting cautious optimism that, weather permitting, all the blazes would be fully contained by Monday night.
Bureau Report
Temperatures have plummeted by some 60 degrees fahrenheit (15 c.) in the last two days, from around 90 degrees (32 c.)to around 30 degrees (-1 c.), and heavy rains and snow that arrived Friday night and carried through into Saturday morning proved a boon to fire crews.
Mike Mcgroarty, Deputy Chief of Fire Operation for California's Office of Emergency Services, said, ''the weather has been very very good to us over the last 24 hours.''
''It looks like (Southern California) is going to have some really good humidity over the next several days,'' he added at a media briefing.
He said the fires had ''pretty much slowed and in some cases have stopped.''
The dramatic weather shift could mean the fires would be contained about three days sooner. While officials reported on Friday night that the six fires still burning through the southern portion of the state were at least 25 percent contained, the picture on Saturday more was much brighter, prompting cautious optimism that, weather permitting, all the blazes would be fully contained by Monday night.
Bureau Report