Dixie Fire – Friday the 13th, Part 2.

Another nerve-wracking day on the Dixie, waiting for Westwood to burn. And it did not. I mainly concentrated on the Westwood Sector today, and took it slow after being up late last night.

We got an IR flight at 5:20 pm, but much of the fire activity took place after that – some portions of the fire continue to burn actively at time of writing – 10 pm. For some high-quality disaster porn, check out the highly addictive and deeply scarring color infrared webcam that is documenting the death and destruction of our favorite places in real time.

Current view north of County Road A-13, 10:30pm. Source: Digital Path and their network of robot lookouts. I’m going to send them my therapy bill when this is all over.

The thunderstorms came and went, and the outflow winds either weren’t as severe as yesterday, or they just blew the fire in more favorable directions. As of 10pm, the fire continues to burn actively off of the 10 Road, north of Highway 36 and the Chester Transfer Station. The fire appears to be pushing generally upslope to the north, away from Highway 36. Red perimeter is fire at 5:20 pm, 8/13/2021. White line is perimeter from 8 am, 8/13/2021. 

Fire north of Westwood. Dump is tan area north of Hwy 36 in center. There appear to be a couple of spots over the dozer line on the area where the fire spotted over A-21 last night (upper right), but overall, not a lot of heat in that area. Red perimeter is fire at 5:20 pm, 8/13/2021. White line is perimeter from 8 am, 8/13/2021.

Some spread on the flank of fire between Mtn Meadows and Coyote Peak. This is visible right now on the Dyer webcams. No new spread observed where the fire is hitting the 2020 Sheep Fire (purple).

Not a huge amount of spread on the East flank of fire at time of mapping. Red perimeter is fire at 5:20 pm, 8/13/2021. White line is perimeter from 8 am, 8/13/2021. This area has been active since then, though, and is visible on Indian Ridge webcam. Possibly burning in Peters Creek? There are new mandatory evacuations in Genesse Valley, and I don’t have intel on why that is happening.

Some spread continues in flanking fire on lower end of Keddie Ridge. Flank along Diamond Mountain Road appears to be cooling off. Red perimeter is fire at 5:20 pm, 8/13/2021. White line is perimeter from 8 am, 8/13/2021.

Minor flanking spread continues on the north side of Keddie Ridge. A source on the ground reports a possible firing operation tonight to tie in the west flank. We’ll see how that works out for them.

Fire spread quite a bit to west around Willow Lake and between Juniper and Snag Lakes today. Heat perimeter of orange is at 2 pm, 8/13/2021. White line is perimeter from 8 am, 8/13/2021. There were major thundercell buildups over this area and things probably look a lot different now. This view looks south over Juniper Lake. Notice spots out to the west.

Had an inquiry from someone worried about the new fires over by Mill Creek. Here they are today at 2 pm. This view looks NW over the Lassen Park Road (Hwy 89), west of its junction with Hwy 36..

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