Northeast CA / Modoc-Lassen

**Northeast CA / Modoc-Lassen – Tier A (Late May Window)** You're sitting in the sweet spot for true morels right now—soil's holding steady at 52°F with sustained moisture after minimal but consistent precipitation, and all thermal thresholds have been met for the full fruiting window. The spring king boletes and conks are waking up mycelially but haven't pinned yet; they'll need another 3–5 days of warmth to establish primordia. The real constraint here is desiccation: your VWC is solid today (0.34), but last week's aggregate precip was negligible (0.18" over 14 days), and you're still in snowmelt runoff mode—once that subsurface moisture bleeds down or gets burned off by afternoon heating at elevation, fruiting stalls fast. Focus hard on morels in the next 48–72 hours before conditions dry and warm further. Watch the north-facing ravines and seepage zones; those will hold moisture longest as snow shadows retreat. The boletes will be worth a revisit mid-June once soil hits 58–60°F consistently. **Hot tip:** Scout shaded, north-aspect draws with lingering damp soil now—true morels fruit *before* full melt, and your window closes the moment surface drying accelerates.

Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.