Good evening!
If you are visiting The Lookout for the first time, please check out my intro from two days ago, and the ‘About The Lookout‘ page. This work is 100% supported by donations, so if you find our information helpful, please consider making a donation to help us expand our capacities. The intention of The Lookout is to help educate readers on all aspects of wildland fire, including the limits of our capacity to control it. There is no ‘fire-free’ option for most of California and we need to improve our relationship with it, which means putting in the time to learn about how fire works.
These maps are updated from mapping conducted this afternoon, some time before 6pm. The first image is an overview map. The fire spread in small fingers and spots from the main fire today. There was much less growth today, with the longest run keeping to about a mile. There was very little growth at the head of the fire to the east, but a lot of what we call backing or flanking fire, where the fire burns into the wind or downhill or sideways across a slope. Flanking and backing fire is usually lower-intensity than a fire that is running ahead of the wind or uphill. These low-intensity burns often achieve more beneficial fire effects, like removing smaller trees and leaving larger trees alive.
Yesterday’s big eastward run took the fire to the top of Bald Mountain. Fires like to run uphill fast and then usually burn slower back downhill. There is was a small spot fire about two miles east of the head of the main fire and two miles west of Strawberry, above Station Creek Road this morning. This particular spot does not appear to have grown today.
In all of the maps, below, the white line inside the fire represents about 18 hours of fire spread.
Click on each map for an enlarged version.
Looking east over Omo Ranch, the fire is well-established in the Middle Fork Cosumnes River and burned about a mile to the west.
Looking east over Sly park Reservoir. There was some growth of the spot fires over Mormon Emigrant Trail, east of the lake.
Looking east up the South Fork American River and Highway 50.
Looking south over Kyburz.
Looking west over main head of fire from yesterday, atop Bald Mountain. There were several fingers of growth on this part of the fire, but no advancement on yesterday’s head.
Looking northeast over eastern head of the fire, over Silver Fork.
View to the northwest. Kyburz is in upper right.
Looking west over Caldor.
Looking east over fire toward South Lake Tahoe. The fire did not move closer to SLT today and is still 10 miles from Echo Summit. Tamarack Fire is in upper right.
