Santa Barbara County considered ‘abnormally dry’
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif -- The US Drought Monitor now considers Santa Barbara county and a majority of California "abnormally dry."
The Drought Monitor said more than 81% of the state is considered dry. That's up from less than 18% last week.
Santa Barbara County firefighters say it's not unusual for our area to be dry in November.
Lake Cachuma was 72.7% full as of Monday.
Since we haven't had significant rainfall recently, officials say fuel moisture is at critical levels and fires this fall have been burning hot, dry and fast.
"If you think back to last year, we had the Woolsey Fire just finishing up right about now and that was a significant woodland fire burning through the month of November and then the Thomas Fire burned in the month of December and we had an unprecedented 14 days of red flag conditions," Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Daniel Bertucelli said.
Santa Barbara  county has seen zero percent of its normal-to-date rainfall, according to a recent Flood Control District report.
County Fire said it's business as usual this weekend. They said they have not received any information that up-staffing is necessary.
