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 to start firing the upper slopes above this fire for several days with the objective of establishing lower-intensity backing fire before something like this happened.
Photo by Jimmy from Bark Shanty
Here is IR imagery of the fire from 9:30pm, on 8/13/2024.
The fire crossed Boise Creek and blew up the North Fork of Boise Creek. Some firing on a trail atop the ridge showing at 9:30pm, last night, with a large slop over. This part of the fire will bump last year’s Pearch Fire on the other side of the ridge. White line shows 24 hours of fire growth. Heavy white line at top of image is where cloud cover prevented IR mapping.At 9:30pm (red perimeter), the fire was just starting to bump the dozer line to the west, which had not yet been fired.VIIRS (lower resolution) IR satellite data from 2am, 8/14/2024 show this NW flank of the fire spread up the ridge after the IR mapping was captured. This may be showing heat from the dozer and handline being fired ahead of the main fire’s spread. VIIRS is accurate within about 400 yards… Outliers are always suspect on the satellite heat data.The western flank/heel of the fire has not moved for 2 days. Firing continued to hold the fire south of the 10N01 road, on right side of this image. White line shows 24 hours of fire growth.There was backing fire spread off the ridges on the south flank of the fire, and some firing was conducted along the margin of the 2020 Red Salmon Fire (top right).Tactical firing is occurring along old firelines at the margins of the 2020 Red Salmon Fire. The slopover from the previous night’s firing on the upper portions of the 10N01 road spotted over the ridge into the head of Butler Creek in an area that didn’t burn in 2013 Butler Fire.View to NW. The fire is well-established in the 2013 Butler Fire burn. This is not a terrible thing, ecologically, as the are burned 11 years ago, and another fire here is within the natural fire return interval this area has historically experienced. White outline is area where clouds prevented IR mapping last night.Photo by Karuna GreenbergPhoto by Karuna GreenbergPhoto by Karuna GreenbergNow that the fire has gobbled much of the territory available to it for head fire runs, much of the fire behavior will be backing and flanking, which will decrease the overall severity of the fire’s effects. Overnight temperatures and humidity recoveries are conducive to lower-intensity backing fire right now, and will remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Here is yesterday’s Spot Weather Forecast for the fire:
