Storms like the one we just had here in Northern California are a real learning experience. If you want to understand the hydrology of a place, there is no substitute for being out on the ground when water is flowing. Our newest Lookout video is a mashup of on-the-ground video, maps, and commentary on things … Read more
The Shoe Fire is burning in timber on Fenders Ferry Road, between McCloud River and Pit River, north of Lake Shasta. It has been building steadily since about 1:45pm, in an area with very little fire history, poor access, and heavy fuels. Webcam here: https://ops.alertcalifornia.org/cam-console/15596 Area Fire History The Bagley Fire burned to the north, … Read more
Zeke has been busy interviewing some SoCal fire experts the last few days to talk about the fast-moving Line Fire that is burning near Mammoth. Here’s this mornings report on the Line Fire, which also touches on the Davis Fire South of Reno, followed by the interviews from the last few days. Zeke has worked … Read more
Heads up over next 24 hours, as a strong storm system moves over the Park Fire area! We captured some ‘Gigapan’ photography of different areas within the 2024 Park Fire to document fire effects on the vegetation and soils. The images of Bidwell Park were captured about 3 weeks after the area burned. Mill Creek … Read more
August 16, 2024: Overall, things are looking good around the fire today. Over the past 24 hours, crews have continued to make progress, particularly on the north and west sides of the fire where mopping up and securing firelines have been the primary focus. The recent cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels have moderated fire … Read more
Boise Fire backing into recent fires – Ryan Stephens After making a significant slope reversal and running to the top of Antenna Ridge, the fire has moderated over the past 24 hours and is now backing into recent fire footprints. Today, crews are working on the fire’s east side with the addition of two new … Read more
8/14/2024 – 6:30am. In yesterday’s post we talked about the high potential for the Boise Fire to cross Boise Creek and make a big run up the north fork of Boise Creek. That happened yesterday evening. We’ve also been talking on the Livestream about how some locals have been pushing for the incident management team … Read more
Here is a video that was posted recently to YouTube by a user who goes by Brandon Beans. It includes a sporty flight over Upper Park, and some slower views of the area where the Park Fire was ignited. The video shows mixed severity fire effects in Upper Park. Many of the blue oak trees … Read more
We have been using the Boise Fire as an opportunity to talk about the social aspects of fire management in the Klamath Mountains. If you missed those stories, you can watch them in the two videos embedded at the end of this post. 5pm UPDATE: The maps below show the fire’s location at 2:40pm, today, … Read more
A wildfire that ignited Wednesday northeast of Placerville, in Northern California’s El Dorado County, has spread across more than 1,000 acres, and authorities have ordered evacuations for nearby communities. The Crozier Fire had burned an estimated 1,187 acres by Thursday afternoon and was 5% contained, according to Cal Fire. It started northwest of Slate Mountain … Read more
Successful Firing Operation at the Park Fire: A Case Study Satellite imagery by Zeke Lunder Written by Ryan Stephens In late July, we took a trip up Highway 32 to observe the aftermath of a firing operation conducted to control the spread of the Park Fire. This operation was a critical measure to mitigate the … Read more
This essay was sent to us by a long-time US Forest Service employee in response to comments I made yesterday on the Lookout Livestream. It addresses some of the structural problems crippling the US Forest Service, and provides their perspective on major changes they experienced across their career on the Lassen National Forest, in Northern … Read more
Good morning! Cal Fire’s latest IR flight for the Park Fire shows a major firing operation off of roads and dozer lines adjacent to Mill Creek Resort and cabin area, and along Highway 172 toward Childs Meadows. Note north arrow in upper right of following images: 2021 Dixie Fire burn in blue, dozer lines in … Read more
Here’s today’s Park Fire intel summary for August 5, 2024. Things really went to hell today on the Mill Creek portions of the Park Fire. It blew up around noon, and a huge column remained over the fire for almost eight hours. As of 10:30 pm, it appears the fire has pushed as far east … Read more
The Lookout’s Zeke Lunder was on KQED’s forum on Friday, 8/2/2024 to talk about the Park Fire and wildfire resilience in California, in general. Here is a transcription of our conversation. You can listen to the broadcast here: Mina Kim Welcome to forum. I’m Mina Kim. Hotter temperatures expected this weekend and possible dry … Read more
As the Park Fire slowed it’s growth over the last few days, Zeke had the chance to sit down with NSPR’s Matt Fiddler, Sarah Bohannon and Dave Schlom (of Blue Dot) and discuss details about the first day of the Park Fire. Zeke takes us through some of the ecological and geological uniqueness of the … Read more
The Park Fire, now the fifth-largest wildfire in California’s modern history, has destroyed over 430 homes and other buildings in Butte and Tehama counties, and damaged another 42 structures, according to data released by Cal Fire on Wednesday. Cal Fire’s new damage assessment includes a map (now password protected…) of the structures damaged or destroyed … Read more
July 30th Update – Ryan Cowper Stephens Firefighting efforts on the Park Fire have yielded notable progress, though the situation remains dynamic, and with some seemingly insurmountable challenges to overcome, particularly on the Northern and Eastern flanks of the fire. The fire continues to burn very actively in remote, steep and inaccessible terrain. The added … Read more
July 28th Update – Ryan Cowper Stephens The Park Fire, which started on July 24, 2024, has rapidly expanded, affecting Butte, Plumas, Shasta, and Tehama counties. As of the latest updates, it has burned approximately 357,341 acres and is now 12% contained. Yesterday we had our first break from extreme burning conditions. The inversion set … Read more
Today the European Space Agency’s Sentinel Satellite went over the Park Fire. This satellite passes over every 5 days, and has sensors which can see through smoke and detect heat. We use Sentinel data a lot in my day job for vegetation and fuel mapping, but during wildfires, especially on fires as large as the … Read more
The Park Fire has burned across an estimated 307,368 acres in Northern California’s Butte and Tehama counties, becoming one of the state’s largest wildfires on record. By Friday morning, the fire had crossed Highway 36 at Paynes Creek, roughly 40 miles northwest from where it was ignited by arson Wednesday afternoon in Chico’s Bidwell Park. … Read more
For details from day two of the Park Fire near Chico, California, check out Thursday night’s livestream:
Good morning, Here are updated maps for the #ParkFire, flown about 2am, 7/26/2024. The white line represents about 8 hours of fire growth. Interpretation in the individual photo captions. Today’s weather forecast is really not great, with high atmospheric instability and strong SSW and SW winds. We’ll do a livestream tonight, and a quick one … Read more
Here is a really rough map of where the Park Fire might be at midnight, 7/24/2024. Red lines are camera azimuths, where heat was apparent. Crosses in the red lines are potential places the fire has reached. The red, yellow, and orange squares are satellite heat detections, and the blue polygon is Cal Fire’s (6,000 … Read more
Hello everyone, Our 7/22/2024 Mill Fire YouTube Livestream and 7/23/2024 newsletter featured commentary about the widespread structural challenges to maintaining wildfire-resilient vegetation conditions in forested subpisions. We covered this topic because it falls within the purview of our coverage of forestry, fire, and rural culture. As our video was focused on a fire in Eastern … Read more
A Northern California wildfire is burning in a vast swath of land where trees are protected in exchange for so-called carbon credits. The Shelly Fire, which ignited July 3 in Siskiyou County, has spread across thousands of acres of land owned by the Portland-based Ecotrust Forest Management, or EFM. The investment firm protects the trees … Read more
The lightning-sparked Hill Fire in Humboldt County, California had grown to 4,472 acres on Friday, up about 400 acres since Thursday. The fire ignited Tuesday, and was most active on the day it started. It is burning in the Mosquito Creek drainage in the Six Rivers National Forest, west of the South Fork Trinity River, … Read more
A Northern California wildfire that ignited next to a two-year-old burn scar this week could offer new insight into fire behavior in recently-burned areas. Called the Hill Fire, the fire was sparked by lightning Tuesday in Humboldt County, south of the community of Willow Creek, in the Mosquito Creek drainage. Over the course of two … Read more
California’s second-largest wildfire of the season has come close to a halt. The Shelly Fire, near the town of Etna in Siskiyou County, has burned across 15,460 acres in the far northwest corner of California over the past two weeks. Firefighters reported it was 18% contained on Thursday. There was active fire on the north … Read more
California’s largest active fire, the Lake Fire, has reached 20,320 acres in Santa Barbara County. The Lake Fire started Friday near Santa Lucia Road, in the area of Zaca Lake. It’s an area that’s adapted to big fires, and this one is likely to burn for a long time. For mapping and analysis of the … Read more