Good morning, everyone, I hope people got some sleep.
What’s new on the Dixie?
Here is an overview updated about 6:30 am on 8/6/2021.
At 11:45 pm last night, IR was showing a 7 acre spot fire at Lone Rock, 4 miles NE of the main tip of the fire out in the middle of the Moonlight Fire area (light blue). The purple area is the burn footprint of the 2020 Sheep and Hog Fires.
The spot is about 9.5 miles west of Janesville. The spot is also showing up on heat satellite data.
Between 11:45 pm on 8/5 and 5:30 am on 8/6, the spot fire grew from 7 to 20 acres, all backing or flanking. It’s on top of a hill. If it spots onto flats or another slope, we can expect a lot more rapid spread. Because it is in a low-growing plantation, it’s less prone to causing long-range spotting.
Another look at yesterday’s spread on the NE edge of the fire, into the 2007 Moonlight Burn (light blue). The Moonlight burn is a mix of logged and unlogged. It won’t stop the spread of the fire, and the lack of shade and cover makes it hot, dry, and prone to spot fires. However, if conditions permit and winds are favorable, air tankers can be very effective here.
IR Imagery captured 5:30 am, 8/6/2021.
This next image is a little busy, but it shows spread of the fire south toward Crescent Mills. This imagery was captured at about 5:30 am, on 8/6/2021. It sounds like there were many grass fires in the Valley overnight, toward North Valley Road, but they aren’t captured in any of the data I have. If anyone is out there on North Valley Road, can you let me know if my brother’s house made it? 3700 North Valley Road. It has a red metal roof.
The next two images show fire growth between 7:30 pm and 11:45 pm on 8/5/2021. Cream color is heat from 7:30 pm. This shows well the influence of the frontal passage and how it blasted everything to the east. There wasn’t a lot of growth between 11:45 pm and 5:30 am on either of these parts of the fire.
The final 2 images in this series shows fire growth in the area around Lake Almanor West. There was some spread into the community before 7:30 pm (light cream color) and the fire grew to the red line by 11:45pm.
This image shows IR heat in Lake Almanor West area at 5:55 am, 8/6/2021. There was no real growth into LAW after 7:30 pm, but some spread east toward Almanor Drive overnight.
Here is today’s weather forecast.
That’s all for now, and I hope today is less crazy than yesterday.