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Above the fog, it's balmy Photo by Steve Johnson Southern Oregon's upside-down weather is evident as the sun shines brightly above the fog along Interstate 5 near Hugo Monday. Temperatures the rest of the week are predicted to be balmy in the mountains but downright nippy in the valleys. Inversion keeps valleys cold By PAUL FATTIG APPLEGATE -- When a Bureau of Land Management crew ignited a planned brush fire Monday in the Sterling Creek drainage of the Applegate River watershed, the fire roared to life as though it was the dry season instead of the dead of winter. "We had to shut down -- it was a little drier than we anticipated," said Chris Johnson, a fuels management specialist for the BLM's Medford District. The BLM crew had planned to burn 250 acres as part of a program to reduce fire hazard and restore wildlife habitat in the area, but stopped after burning about 15 acres. "The whole area has been above the fog so it has been pretty dry," Johnson said. "We're going to need some rain or snow before we can start burning again." That won't happen again in 1999, according to forecasters with the National Weather Service office at the Medford airport. A weather front bringing moisture is expected to arrive in the Rogue Valley this weekend. Until then, expect overnight lows in the 20s in the valleys with pockets of icy fog while the higher elevations will be sunny with balmy temperatures in the 50s, possibly even 60 degrees. Because of the temperature inversion, cold, dank fog will continue settling in the lower elevations this week while warm, dry weather will remain in the higher elevations of Jackson and Josephine counties, forecasters said. "It looks like the weather will be changing on the first or second," said weather technician Roger Gerig. "The mountains are probably going to see a good amount of snow out of that. There could be eight to 10 inches up at Crater Lake." The weather office at the airport has received only .89 inches of rain this month, compared with a historical average of nearly three inches. That makes it about the eighth driest December on record, Gerig said. While the warm, dry period may make working in the mountains pleasant, it has caused havoc with the BLM's planned burns for the winter, Johnson said. "We need a rainy period, then another drying period before we can get back to burning," he said. His crew has burned about 1,600 acres in the past month. "We've been keeping a good handle on them," he said. "We don't want to take any chances." The acreage burned is part of the 4,700 acres the Medford District hopes to burn before the summer dry season. The prescribed burns are part of the agency's efforts to reduce fire danger, improve forest health and remove logging slash. However, the sites will not be burned if they are too dry or too wet. The potential for winds to blow smoke from the fire into populated areas will also halt the prescribed burning. The district, in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and officials from the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests, has developed the nation's first interagency smoke monitoring program. Under the program, meteorologists from the DEQ and the National Weather Service are consulted to determine weather and wind conditions predicted for the burn day. The wind must be sufficient to disperse the smoke well and prevent it from pooling in the Medford/Ashland and Grants Pass areas. For updated information on prescribed fire activities, call 770-2354. The recording will provide information on the location and dates of the planned burning. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA