Drought: Santa Cruz County Moisture Levels Remain At Record Low

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Fuel moisture levels in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties continue to decrease and are at historically low levels as officials prepare for fire season.

On Friday, Cal Fire CZU performed a bi-monthly fuel moisture test on vegetation across its region and found that sites in both counties outside the marine layer remain at historically dry levels.

The moisture levels detected at the sites — Pulgas in San Mateo County and Saratoga Summit in Santa Cruz County — remain consistent with the driest parts of the drought from 2011 to 2017 and are also four to six weeks ahead of last year’s values, according to fire officials.

In Watsonville, the marine layer has kept the Corralitos site relatively moist and its fuel moisture levels around average, officials said. The site at Highways 35 and 92 near Half Moon Bay could not be sampled because the persistent marine layer kept the plants wet.

Last year the Golden State saw record-breaking, devastating wildfires such as the CZU August Lightning Complex fires that tore through 86,500 acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroyed 1,500 buildings and left one person dead.

More: Drought: Santa Cruz County Plants At Record Low Moisture Levels

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom added both San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties to the list of those covered by an emergency drought proclamation, which now includes 50 of California's 58 counties.

He asked all Californians to reduce water consumption by 15 percent.

"We are now two years into a drought, having just come out of a five-year drought that concluded just a few years ago," Newsom said.

"Arguably, we have been in drought conditions as far back as 2000, not only here in the state of California, but all throughout the west coast of the United States."

Patch editors Courtney Teague and Gideon Rubin contributed to this report.