Cedar Creek and California Wildfires – September 10, 2022

California and Cedar Creek Wildfires – September 10, 2022 Mosquito, Fairview, Forward & Cedar Creek Mosquito Fire – 10am Update If you watched our Mosquito Fire livestream this morning (September 10, 2022), the 7:45am IR flight shows the following developments since the 10pm imagery used in our YouTube presentation. Color key: Green dots are structures. … Read more

Six Rivers Lightning Complex, McKinney and Yeti Fires – August 7, 2022

Six Rivers National Forest Lightning Complex Fires and the McKinney/Yeti Fires – August 7, 2022 Maps and captions: Ryan Cowper Stephens   Table of Contents:   Zeke’s Video Briefing on YouTube Six Rivers National Forest Lightning Complex Fires McKinney and Yeti Fire Weather Forecast McKinney Fire Yeti Fire Six Rivers National Forest Lightning Complex Fires … Read more

Interview with Veteran Wildland Firefighter Jim Klump

Zeke sat down with Jim Klump, a veteran wildland firefighter and old-school Redding smokejumper who was the District Fire Management Officer on the Plumas National Forest for 25 years. They talked about the intersection of fire and forestry, land management, people, leadership, and history. The interview took place in May 2022.

 

They also talked about PTSD, firefighting tactics, landscape-scale backfiring operations, climate change, immigration, the culture of the Forest Service from the 60s to the present, and the survival prospects of our wildfire-threatened rural communities.

This video features Google Earth map animations, historic aerial photos, historic photos from UC Davis and Chico State and aerial video from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center.

 

 

Full Interview with Daniel Swain, PhD

  Daniel Swain, PhD is one of the world’s foremost experts in the interactions between climate, wildfire, and flooding. He joined Zeke at The Lookout to talk about the Dixie Fire specifically and how weather affects wildfire in general. He also had some interesting things to tell us about the Marshall Fire, flooding and climate … Read more

Fawn Fire – 9/24/2021 Morning Update

Good morning, Our latest intel from the Fawn Fire is infrared mapping flights from 9:40pm on September 23. The white line is where fire was at noon on September 23. Yellow line is 1pm, first red line is 6pm, and outermost line from 9:40pm. Here are still images of the same information from the video. … Read more

Southern Sierra Fires – 9/22/2021

Windy Fire – September 22, 2021 Let’s take a look at today’s briefing map: _______________ Maps and Captions by Ryan Stephens with commentary by Chuck Ervin Ryan Stephens: IR was back in the air last night and today we have the maps to prove it! So far, the fire has reached into five giant sequoia … Read more

Dixie Fire Effects – Two Videos

We got into the burned area of the West Zone of the Dixie Fire on September 10, right after about a half-inch of rain. We looked at some of the ways the fire has affected the forests. The two videos below show what we saw on our trip. This first video shows post-fire forest conditions … Read more

Dixie Fire – 9/9/2021

9/9/2021 at 3:30pm Here is IR mapping of the northwest corner of the fire, from 12:18pm on September 9. Some heat showing outside of yesterday’s spot fire near Butte Lake. EARLIER: 9/9/2021 at noon Here is the 10:30am 9/9/2021 perimeter for the northwest corner of Dixie, near Old Station showing spread since 8pm on September. … Read more

Caldor Fire – 9/9/2021

9/9/2021 at 7am Here is a video briefing focusing on Echo Lake and area between Strawberry and Kirkwood — the two remaining areas of the fire with the most heat.  Below is an assessment of the situation from our correspondent ‘Tumbleweed’ a retired wildland fire captain. IR from 22:33 (10:33pm) on September 8. Isolated … Read more

Caldor Fire – Fire Severity and 9/8/2021 Heat Maps

9/8/2021 at 7am Below is a morning report from our contributor ‘Tumbleweed,’ a retired wildfire captain. Also check out our latest Youtube video, which discusses the burn severity of the Caldor Fire.  IR from 22:40 (10:40pm) on September 7. Isolated heat has been removed for clarity on some pics. Clear areas do not indicate … Read more

Caldor Fire – 9/6/2021

9/6/2021 at 9am Here is an update from Lookout contributor ‘Tumbleweed,’  retired wildland fire captain. IR from 2341 (11:41pm) last night. Isolated heat has been removed for clarity. Clear areas do not indicate no heat. There are many reasons for heat not showing on IR runs. Only eyes on the ground can determine when it … Read more

Caldor Fire – 9/5/2021 Morning Update

Above is a quick video about how forest thinning projects helped firefighters contain portions of the Dixie and Caldor Fires. If it is too chunky, maybe wait a few minutes for YouTube to post the HD version. Also, I’m aware about the missing audio. The missing section of audio shows different results of thinning along … Read more

9/4/2021 – Dixie Fire Update

Video briefing for 9/4/2021   EARLIER: 9/3/2021, 9pm. A few pieces of new information from today: According to a trusted local source, the 2012 Reading Fire is too green to burn. The team is thinking about using napalm from a flamethrower to get it to go. I am assuming this would be along the lower … Read more

Caldor Fire – 9/3/2021

9/3/2021, 6:30am Here is what the fire was doing at 9:15pm on September 2. I did some interpretation of other more detailed imagery flown in the early morning hours and fire hadn’t spread significantly overnight. This 9:15pm imagery makes for a nicer presentation, so I’m using it for these maps. White line shows 24 hours … Read more