Relating to how fire affects the plants, animals, vegetation, trees, soil, and land it burns upon.
We are adopting a bit more freewheeling format for the Lookout Livestream as we enter peak fire season in California. In this report, Zeke Lunder discussed the Gifford fire, noting its 100,000-acre size and recent growth of 4-6 miles per day. He highlighted the impact of the marine layer on fire behavior and the potential … Read more
Summary Zeke Lunder provided updates on several fires, starting with Dragon Bravo in New Mexico, which is spreading slowly and interacting with previous fire scars. The fire is expected to hit the Cane fire area, potentially being contained there. Monroe Canyon’s fire, driven by drought and wind, is being managed with firing operations. The Gifford … Read more
The Big Cliff Fire, on the Klamath National Forest, in far NW California, looks like it will be with us for awhile. Here is last night’s IR map. Big Cliff Fire Overview The Big Cliff Fire is on a steep slope, making mapped acreage inacurate. The fire is burning inside the “Whites Fire” from 2014, … Read more
A busy day here at The Lookout, and across the west! We started the day looking at intel for the Dragon Bravo and Monroe Canyon Fires, but quickly got swept up with the developing Big Cliff Fire, on the Klamath National Forest, and finished the afternoon watching the rapidly-unfolding 1-4 Fire, in Susanville. We cover … Read more
Summary Zeke Lunder provided a midday update on the Dragon Bravo and Monroe Canyon fires, using satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2. The Dragon Bravo fire, active on the western flank, has seen significant firefighting efforts, including drone-assisted ignitions. The fire has advanced a mile and a half in 12 hours and is … Read more
Summary Zeke Lunder discussed the Dragon Bravo and Monroe Canyon fires. Dragon Bravo, burning on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, has destroyed the visitor center and is spreading rapidly, with minimal firefighting success. The fire is expected to reach the Kaibab Lodge, with efforts to slow its progression using drones and strategic firing … Read more
Today’s Lookout Livestream discusses the Dragon Bravo Fire, on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, in Northern Arizona, and the Monroe Canyon Fires, in Central Utah. Both are currently being influences by very dry conditions, and strong SW winds. Under the current conditions, the fires are largely uncontrollable, with most firefighting progress being made … Read more
Zeke Lunder discussed the Dragon Bravo and Butler Fires. Dragon Bravo, started in the first week of July, has been romping to the NE due to extreme conditions. The fire has destroyed the historic North Rim Lodge and 70-80 structures, with suppression costs reaching $20 million. The fire’s progression is influenced by weather and terrain, … Read more
Zeke Lunder provided an update on the Dragon Bravo fire, which has been active for nearly a month and is now 8,000 acres. The fire has destroyed over 70 structures and is moving northeast under prevailing southwesterly winds. Firefighters have conducted firing operations to manage the fire’s intensity but face challenges due to extreme dryness … Read more
This video shares video, maps, and photos collected in the year since the Park Fire burned over 400,000 acres in Northern California, north of Chico, California. The audio for this episode was recorded on 7/31/2024, during an interview for the Blue Dot Report, a week into the fire. The Blue Dot Report is a science … Read more
UPDATE – Morning of 7/25/2025 The fire is now well-established in the Saddle Mountain Wilderness. It has not breached the 7/21-7/22 firing operations along the northern boundary of the Park into the Kaibab NF, though it has potential to sneak out of the wilderness back onto the Kaibab from the SE. The fire grew in … Read more
Cover photo courtesy of Six Rivers National Forest. Lookout Livestream Overview Maps Summary There was fairly subdued activity over the past 24 hours, with mainly slow, backing progression towards the community of Forks of Salmon. The fire is currently most active in McNeal Creek. The fire is generally not spreading very readily within areas burned … Read more
The firefighters continue to make good progress on the Green Fire north of Shasta Lake. They’ve now completed firing operations down the ridge between Rip Gut Creek and Fenders Ferry Road, and the firing operation is filling in back towards the main body of the fire. On the south flank of the fire, fire lines … Read more
Introduction to Today’s Video Wildfire ‘severity’ describes the ecological effects of a fire. At a landscape-scale, severity is measured using satellite imagery. This process uses images of the vegetation from before and after the fire to create colored maps which show how much plant life is still alive after the fire. In this episode, we … Read more
Today’s Lookout Livestream We look at the potential for continued spread of the Green Fire, north of Shasta Lake, the Summit Fire, in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, near the town of Etna, California, and the Butler Fire, east of Somes Bar, on the Salmon River. Also, we take a first look at the Dragon Bavo … Read more
I was in a burn plan writing workshop at Chico State this week, and ran into retired US Forest Service leader, Patty Grantham. She is a Lookout fan, and said yes when I asked her to sit for an interview! We discussed her 41-year career. She detailed her tenure on the Klamath National Forest from … Read more
The Green, Butler, and Summit Fires continue to spread in far-Northern California. We look at today’s events on each fire, and at the Neil Creek, Demming, and Elk Fires, in Southern Oregon. Today’s Livestream ļ»æ Situation Status Hot weather has settled in over much of NorCal, under a ridge of high atmospheric pressure. This is … Read more
{Written by a robot, skimmed by Zeke} Zeke Lunder discussed the active wildfires in Northern California on July 4, 2025. Key fires included 2 small fires in Butte County, the Green Fire near Round Mountain/Shasta Lake, the Horse Fire between Lakehead and Trinity Lake, the Helena Fire west of Weaverville, and the Summit, Butler, and … Read more
In March we took a spring break trip to the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara, and the Santa Lucia Mountains east of Morro Bay. We looked at wildfire hazards in the tiny, cliff-dwelling of a town my wife grew up in, and returned to an area where I worked in 2001 to look at … Read more
If you’ve followed our work, you’ve probably heard about my friend and colleague, Will Harling, who is a leader in bringing community-based prescribed fire back to the Klamath River after a century of fire exclusion and criminalization of native burning by local tribes. Locals on the River have been through a lot of fire, and … Read more
Current Situation The Hughes Fire started midday on 1/22/2025 east of Castaic Lake, California. It had grown to 9,000 acres by 6pm, and had spread vigorously to the west, driven by sustained NE winds and very low humidities. The winds are not severe enough to ground firefighting aircraft, and an enormous amount of water and … Read more
We discussed the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California, noting that both fires are mostly out despite ongoing wild weather. We highlighted the high-severity burn in vegetation-rich areas and the ecological benefits of lower-severity burning in the riparian zones. We talked about how the complex, bureaucratic post-fire cleanup process will roll out, based on … Read more
The Shoe Fire is burning in timber on Fenders Ferry Road, between McCloud River and Pit River, north of Lake Shasta. It has been building steadily since about 1:45pm, in an area with very little fire history, poor access, and heavy fuels. Webcam here: https://ops.alertcalifornia.org/cam-console/15596 Area Fire History The Bagley Fire burned to the north, … Read more
Zeke has been busy interviewing some SoCal fire experts the last few days to talk about the fast-moving Line Fire that is burning near Mammoth. Here’s this mornings report on the Line Fire, which also touches on the Davis Fire South of Reno, followed by the interviews from the last few days. Zeke has worked … Read more
Here is a video that was posted recently to YouTube by a user who goes by Brandon Beans. It includes a sporty flight over Upper Park, and some slower views of the area where the Park Fire was ignited. The video shows mixed severity fire effects in Upper Park. Many of the blue oak trees … Read more
We have been using the Boise Fire as an opportunity to talk about the social aspects of fire management in the Klamath Mountains. If you missed those stories, you can watch them in the two videos embedded at the end of this post. 5pm UPDATE: The maps below show the fire’s location at 2:40pm, today, … Read more
Here’s today’s Park Fire intel summary for August 5, 2024. Things really went to hell today on the Mill Creek portions of the Park Fire. It blew up around noon, and a huge column remained over the fire for almost eight hours. As of 10:30 pm, it appears the fire has pushed as far east … Read more
The Lookout’s Zeke Lunder was on KQED’s forum on Friday, 8/2/2024 to talk about the Park Fire and wildfire resilience in California, in general. Here is a transcription of our conversation. You can listen to the broadcast here: Mina KimĀ Welcome to forum. I’m Mina Kim. Hotter temperatures expected this weekend and possible dry … Read more
Today the European Space Agency’s Sentinel Satellite went over the Park Fire. This satellite passes over every 5 days, and has sensors which can see through smoke and detect heat. We use Sentinel data a lot in my day job for vegetation and fuel mapping, but during wildfires, especially on fires as large as the … Read more
Zeke recently went to the 10th annual International Fire Ecology and Management Congress where he gave two separate talks, one of which his only instruction was to “be provocative.” Zeke was happy to deliver a talk that centered on the radical idea that towns that burn down need to be reconfigured so that they are … Read more