A gross side effect from California's extra wet winter: more disease-carrying ticks this spring

 “The longer and more rain usually means ticks are out for longer,” said Dan Salkeld, an ecologist at Colorado State University and a scientific advisor for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “Having a good rainy wet season is going to be good for ticks.”

And after one of the wettest few weeks on record this January, Salkeld said he expects ticks to be out in full force.

"They just like that moist climate," he said. "Having this longer wet season just means that there will be this longer window that ticks are abundant."

Ticks in Northern California typically come out after the first big rain in the fall — often around Halloween — and remain a problem for hikers and others enjoying the outdoors through late spring into early summer, Salkeld said. The western black-legged tick, the most common species in California, often carries diseases that can be transmitted to humans through a bite — especially Lyme disease.