Tropical storm may provide relief from drought

Charleston, S.C.

Tropical Storm Cristóbal, the first tropical storm to menace the Southeast seaboard this hurricane season, sent outer bands of intermittent rain lashing the eastern Carolinas on Saturday as forecasters predicted it could dump several inches in areas of drought-stricken North Carolina.

Late Saturday, the center of the storm was about 45 miles southeast of Cape Fear, N.C., and about 170 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The National Hurricane Center said Cristóbal was moving northeast at about 6 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph.

Tropical storm warnings remained in effect from north of Little River Inlet in South Carolina to the North Carolina-Virginia state line.

Meanwhile Saturday, Hurricane Fausto strengthened far off Mexico's Pacific Coast, while Hurricane Bertha, the longest-lived July tropical storm in history, was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Sacramento, Calif.

Cooler weather aiding fire crews

Cooler weather has allowed fire crews to corral most of the wildfires across California, but a handful of stubborn, hard-to-reach mountain blazes Saturday were keeping residents from their homes.

Firefighters were trying to stop a fire in the Shasta Trinity National Forest from spreading to the rural town of Junction City, where an evacuation order was issued for some residents on Friday.

"Overall we're seeing the conditions stabilize," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jason Kirchner. "The only problem with that in Northern California is, it's stabilized into hot, dry conditions."

So far this year, a total of 1,447 square miles has burned, a staggering amount of land so early in the fire season. Fires consumed roughly 1,563 square miles in all of 2007, Kirchner said.

Seattle Times news services