YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Rainfalls have hit northern California and have facilitated tackling the fatal wildfires that are blazing for already two weeks. But now, the rain in turn is said to make search and rescue operations more difficult, with growing dangers of possible flooding and mudslides.

The first bout of heavy rain is expected to hit Butte County. The heaviest amounts will come Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon, with between 2.5 and 4 inches expected during that 24-hour period, CNN reported.

When the rain comes, "It's going to consolidate the material and make it more dense. And it's going to present much more like soil. So anything we find or hope to find that's still there, it's going to make a difficult task ... that much more difficult," said Brian Ferreira, rescue squad officer for California Task Force 4.

In Paradise, a town virtually wiped out by the Camp Fire, the storms will bring about an inch of rain Wednesday and could cause ash flows, or a slurry of ash swept away by rainwater.

Ferreira said it's possible some remains could be washed away. If that happens, "it's out of our hands at that point. We're going to go as hard as we can, as long as we can, until we can't go anymore. That's what's going to happen."

Across Butte County, residents were bracing for a possible floods. Rain also is expected in Southern California, where the Woolsey Fire was burning west of Los Angeles.

The Woolsey burn area is expected to get less than an inch of rain. But it's still at risk of mudslides and minor debris flow from Wednesday to Thursday, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.

Mudslides are more likely in the Woolsey Fire area because fires in the southern part of the state tend to destroy vegetation roots, said Robert Baruffaldi, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Sacramento office.