Weather conditions held out for northern California's 2018 rice harvest as growers worked their way through their early-to-late season varieties.

Marysville-area grower Charley Mathews began harvest of his early crop as morning temperatures began to hint of a cool-down while daytime highs remained above 90 degrees. Mathews is the new USA Rice Federation chairman, elected to the post by his peers at a meeting in Texas last summer.

California produces about 4 billion pounds of rice annually from roughly 550,000 acres of farmland. About 95 percent of the state's rice production takes place between Sacramento and Chico. According to the University of California, rice yields in California can exceed 10,000 pounds per acre, which is about 20 percent above the national average.