NorCal Lightning Bust and Oregon Fires 8/18/23

Wildfire reporting for 8/18/2023. NorCal and Oregon in separate videos. Getting ready for hurricane-induced winds. I don’t always have time to do videos of fires in Oregon, Idaho, Canada, etc. But since things have been relatively quiet, I did this short video. (And how could I not cover the Lookout Fire?) –Zeke

Northern California Lightning Fires – August 15, 2023

Welcome back to the Lookout! Yesterday’s lightning bust produced a number of fires throughout Northern California and the show’s not over yet. We’re expecting to see more thunderstorms rolling in today and throughout the week, mostly in the Sierra, Cascade, and Coast Ranges. There are a number of fires that have taken hold and have … Read more

The Fish Abide – Forging Hope After the Camp Fire

A note from the editor/Zeke: Last week part of a hydropower flume in Upper Butte Creek, near where we live, in Chico, California, collapsed, sending millions of gallons of water down a steep forested slope, and causing a landslide of mud and soil which poured into Butte Creek. This has caused many days of extremely … Read more

Dry Lightning

Let’s talk lightning! At least once a decade in California, a few hours of abundant and widespread ‘dry lightning’ (no rain) turn an average wildfire season into an exceptional one. Thousands of wildfires start, some in remote areas, and many will burn until fall rains come. Unlike human-caused fires, which grow quickly when they ignite … Read more

Mosquito Fire – September 18, 2022

Things got a little squirrelly yesterday on the east side of the fire, but this morning’s top story is RAIN!     Mosquito Fire – September 18, 2022 Maps & Intel: Ryan Cowper Stephens As we saw on the McKinney fire this year, rain over a wildfire creates new hazards.  An extreme example of this … Read more

Mosquito Fire – September 17, 2022

Mop up continues around Foresthill and things are looking good on the northwestern area of the fire leading up to today’s expected wind event. Mop up continuing on the northeast area of the fire along Foresthill, Chicken Hawk and Deadwood Roads. Firing overnight around the Middle Fork of the American River along the Inner Bay … Read more

Mosquito Fire – September 13, 2022

September 13 at 10am: Forecasted to have less smoke hanging around the fire today. Inversion could lift early and increase fire behavior. Data from last night’s infrared flight was spotty due to heavy smoke and not worth interpretation. Overnight, firing operations were completed between Buckeye Peak to the American River. The fire was most active … Read more

Mosquito & Mountain Fire Intel – 9/12/22

New heat maps for the Mosquito Fire, near Foresthill and Georgetown, California. We also look at the overnight spread of the rekindled Mountain Fire, northwest of Mt. Shasta (no new mapping, just webcam imagery). There was no overnight IR, so we are skipping the Cedar Creek Fire in Oregon this morning.

 

 

California Wildfires – September 9, 2022

California Wildfires – September 9, 2022 Mosquito & Fairview Maps and captions: Ryan Cowper Stephens Table of Contents: Mosquito Fire Fairview Fire Mosquito Fire UPDATE 10:30 am FIRIS inferred imagery: MAP KEY: RED perimeter to YELLOW perimeter is about 12 hours fire growth between 11pm last night and 1030 am today. GREEN boxes are structures … Read more

California Wildfires – September 8, 2022

California Wildfires – September 8, 2022 Mosquito, Fork, Radford & Fairview Maps and captions: Ryan Cowper Stephens and Zeke Lunder 9/8/2022 Lookout Livestream Evening Update 9/8/2022 Lookout Livestream Morning Update Table of Contents: Mosquito Fire Fork Fire Radford FIre Fairview Fire Mosquito Fire Maps were updated three times on 9/8/22. UPDATE: 4:45 pm, 9/8/2022 FIRIS … Read more

Mosquito Fire – September 7, 2022

Mosquito Fire – September 7, 2022 Maps and captions: Zeke Lunder and Ryan Stephens The Mosquito Fire started last night in the Middle Fork American River Canyon, at Oxbow Reservoir. It is growing rapidly today and will become a major fire. Under current conditions, firefighting will not control the head of the fire, and the … Read more

Southern California Wildfires – September 7, 2022 Video

From Zeke:

New heat maps for the Mosquito Fire (near Foresthill), Fairview Fire (near Hemet) and Radford Fire (near Big Bear). Also, we look at potential power grid impacts of current fires, and talk about wildfire history, burn severity, and mapping tools we use to analyze fire effects.

 

 

 

 

Cedar Creek, Rum Creek and SoCal Fire Updates – September 6, 2022 Video

New heat maps for the Mountain Fire, near Gazelle. We check in on the stubborn Rum Creek Fire, and take a look at the Cedar Creek Fire, east of Oakridge, Oregon. Also, we duck down to Southern California to look at their new fires, and talk about wildfire severity, and mapping tools we use to analyze fire effects.

 

 

Mill, Mountain, Rum Creek and SRF Complex – September 4, 2022 Livestream

Here’s Zeke’s edited live stream from today. He covers the Mill Fire, Mountain Fire and Rum Creek Fire. This is not the original live stream because Zeke had a layer on one of the fire maps that wasn’t supposed to be there. So we took down that live stream and put this fixed version back up. The Mill Fire update is on second video.

Zeke is planning on doing another live fire update around 7am tomorrow morning, September 5, 2022. Go to our YouTube channel and subscribe to catch it. Also, follow Zeke on Twitter, he usually puts some updated maps up in the afternoon if any of the fires have made any big changes.

 

 

Mill Fire update:

 

 

Six Rivers & Rum Fire – September 1, 2022 Livestream

Happy September everyone. Zeke did a long video today and we’ve posted a transcript below. Zeke is livestreaming every morning at 7am Pacific Time on YouTube, unless otherwise noted on Twitter. He’s covering Rum Creek Fire and Six Rivers Complex every day at this time. Don’t miss his videos, subscribe to The Lookout’s YouTube channel. … Read more

Wildfire Drones & Aerial Firing – August 30, 2022 Livestream

In today’s livestream, we talked about new developments in the use of drones for monitoring and backfiring during wildfires. This is part of a longer daily update video on firing ops on the Six Rivers Lightning Complex and new growth on the Rum Creek Fire.

More information on the drone being used click here.

 

 

Seeing the Big Picture – August 27, 2022 Livestream

We talk about firing ops on the Six Rivers Lightning Complex, new growth on the Rum Creek Fire, and look at two fires being managed for resource benefits in Yosemite National Park. Also, an overview of some of the intel websites I use.

 

 

Six Rivers Lightning Complex – August 22, 2022

Here’s Zeke’s latest video from the morning of August 22. He’s answering live chat questions at the end of the videos these days, so if that appeals to you, he’s streaming on YouTube at 7am Pacific Time during the week.  Catch the live broadcast.

From Zeke:

We look at the growth of the fire on 8/21/2022, and look for patterns in historic logging and fire severity around the SRF Lightning Complex Fires near Trinity Village, Salyer and Willow Creek, Trinity County, California.

We also talk about fire severity mapping and the limitations of using satellite imagery.

 

 

 

Six Rivers Lightning Complex – August 19, 2022

Hi everyone! Here’s Zeke’s latest video on the SRF Lightning Complex with an exciting live Q&A with viewers during the last eight minutes of the stream. He looks at historic logging around the SRF Lightning Complex Fires near Trinity Village, Salyer and Willow Cree in Trinity County, California. He also looks at the Kennedy Fire, … Read more