UPDATE: 7:00pm, 8/27/2021 Here is infrared data from a 6:30pm flight showing the fire’s spread to the east. There has not been any new spread over the dozer lines in Station and Cody Creek, but the two fingers of the head of the fire have closed together to the south of Highway 50, and the … Read more
MAP UPDATE: 7:00 pm IR heat mapping The north and south heads of the fire came together on top of Highway 50 between Kyburz and 39-Mile Campground this afternoon. The fire that established itself over the dozer lines in Cody Creek did not appear to grow much this afternoon. As noted in the midday update, … Read more
UPDATED 8/25/2021, 5:30pm Caldor continues to steadily gobble its way across the landscape. It has been spotting up to 3/4 of a mile today and this is helping spread the fire across areas of sparser fuels around Packsaddle Pass. Just got some mapping from a 3pm flight. The fire moved about three miles east from … Read more
UPDATE: 5:00pm – 8/24/2021 Since this morning’s mapping, around 2:30am, there has been about a mile of spread to the east on both the spot fire near Kyburz and the main head of the fire. Also, the southeast flank continues to spread actively, especially in areas north of Mormon Emigrant Trail and the Silver Fork … Read more
I know so many of you are just getting back home, or trying to get home… if you have a home left to go to. People with attachments to this land have lost so much. Please don’t read this post as minimizing how the Dixie Fire has been terrible for our communities. In the spirit … Read more
Hello and good morning. If you are visiting The Lookout for the first time, please check out my intro from a couple days ago, and read 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 … Read more
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 … Read more
7:30 pm UPDATE: Here are heat maps for Genesee Valley from 5:30pm on August 22, 2021. Fire continues to back into Genesee Valley. Not much else to report on the fire. The fire east of Highlands appears to have not crossed Highway 36 and the fire near Mill Creek looks to be cooling down. … Read more
Good morning. 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 it helpful, please consider making a donation to help us expand our capacities. The intention of The … Read more
Good evening, If you are visiting The Lookout for the first time, please check out my intro from yesterday, and the ‘About The Lookout‘ page. 7:30pm update: Here are updated heat maps for the Caldor Fire, captured at about 6:30pm on August 21, 2021. At this time, the eastern edge of the fire is on … Read more
Hello, If you are just visiting The Lookout for the first time, please check out my intro from yesterday, and the ‘About The Lookout‘ page. Full fire weather and fire behavior forecasts at bottom of this page. 3:00pm UPDATE: The Caldor Fire is making major runs to the east today. Between 8pm last night and … Read more
8pm update: Genesee Valley was the hub of much of the action today. Mill Creek/Highlands area looks like it is cooling down. Minor spread on N side of Lassen Park, and Fredoyer Summit. Some movement south toward Milford. Infrared mapping from 5pm, 8/21/2021. EARLIER: Good morning, everyone. Today is my dad’s 76th birthday and the … Read more
Good evening. Here is the afternoon update on conditions through early afternoon on the Caldor Fire. These maps are produced by The Lookout. This information is intended to supplement, not replace information from official fire information websites like InciWeb. We make our maps from publicly available heat scan data (we call them “IR, or infrared … Read more
UPDATE: 7:00 pm. Fire ran across the floor of Genesee Valley at the Heart K Ranch and made a big run up the hillside underburned 2 years ago in the Walker Fire (blue). That the Walker Fire reburned surprises the hell out of me. Most of the large trees survived the 2019 burn here, and … Read more
Below are maps of the Caldor Fire burning in El Dorado National Forest made from infrared data captured at 8:45 pm on August 19. The white lines show 24 hours of fire spread and images are laid out in a clockwise rotating direction around the fire, starting at Omo Ranch. Currently, we are focusing on … Read more
UPDATE: 6pm IR. It looks like they were able to hook the spot fire on Fredonyer we were looking at earlier this afternoon. There is a small slopover on Hamilton Mountain Road in the same area, but no major blowouts along the road. I would expect crews to be firing the rest of this road … Read more
Lots of wind today, but no huge losses on any of the major lines as of 3pm. If you are a student of wildfire, this clip will probably give you the chills. Most firefighters have seen the Eagle Fire Burnover video many times in annual refresher trainings. It’s shown to remind us about unique dangers … Read more
Here is a weather forecast from a NWS forecaster that I got from the forums.wildfireintel.org website. Major takeaways: The offshore winds will continue for 48 hours, followed by a reversal to gusty onshore winds. These reversals will complicate firefighting efforts across the region. Farther out, there is potential for moisture from the Pacific Ocean to … Read more
I wrote this piece a couple days after my hometown of Westwood narrowly missed being burned up by the Dixie Fire. We had spent the previous week watching closely as the fire moved steadily, and sometimes rapidly, toward town. Everyone up there was evacuated, and a lot of old friends were leaning on The Lookout … Read more
Good evening. With a half million-plus acre fire, there is always something to report! Most fire we are looking at tonight is in locations that have been active for the past week, so let’s start the check-in. Today we got data from a Sentinel satellite orbit. This is like Christmas for map geeks. Here is … Read more
Good morning. If you are evacuated, I’m feeling for you, and hope I can give you some good news. UPDATES: An IR recon plane flew over the fire at 1pm, and captured this mapping of the fire south of Janesville. Not a lot of growth in past 10 hours. White line shows fire as mapped … Read more
UPDATE: The new fires on Morgan Summit have grown together and are 10,000 acres. A firing operation along Highway 89 aimed to keep the fire to the east of the Park Road. Firing occurred at the Visitor Center at the old ski area, and I have no intel on any damage to facilities there. Here … Read more
Good evening, The big news this evening is explosive growth of new lightning fires on Morgan Summit, on Highway 36 west of Dixie. These have escaped initial attack and are now growing rapidly. With the forecast winds for next two afternoons, there is a strong possibility they will merge with Dixie in next few days. … Read more
Good morning everyone, Well, we continue to grind this one out. On this topic, it is worth mentioning that many of our worst wildfire disasters and accidents have happened during transitions between management teams. The east zone will be transitioning to a new Federal Type I Incident Management Team this afternoon. Often, a lot of … Read more
Good evening. The Dixie Fire made some moves today. Nothing on the west side really blew out more than a mile between 6:30 am and 6:30 pm, but there were a few noteworthy runs. The east side of the fire pushed up a towering column, and I think this kept the IR plane from getting … Read more
Good morning, this post has been update with detailed maps from IR captured at 6:30 am, 8/14/2021. There were some firing operations along the Highway 36 corridor last night. Don’t know exactly where, but Westwood and other communities are still safe. Biggest change this morning is the fire added about 4,000 acres on the west … Read more
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 … Read more
We use the term ‘fire severity’ to describe a fire’s level of impact on the vegetation, soil, and overall ecology of a place. High severity isn’t always bad – some ecosystems like chaparral are well-suited to it. You can really go down a rabbit hole on this topic, and every place is different in what … Read more
Just another crazy day/night on the Dixie Fire. Last night’s post is bleeding into today’s – what an night! As of 2am, Westwood, Clear Creek, Hamilton Branch, and the Peninsula were still standing. But today is Friday the 13th, it’s another critical fire weather day, and our communities are literally surrounded by fire. There has … Read more
11:20 Update: Today’s weather is problematic for firefighters. The smoke is lifting out, and the forecasts call for increasing instability in the atmosphere. The Haines Index is a number which meteorologists use to quantify the potential instability, with a score of 6 being the highest. Today’s Haines is a 6. We often see big runs … Read more