7am on September 27, 2021 – Weather update for the Southern Sierra Fires Below is a Tweet from an Incident Meteorologist regarding a weather shift that could have significant impacts on the South Sierra fires: Change is on the horizon, literally. A cold front will bring stronger transport flow later today & Tuesday. It will … Read more
***September 26 at 11:30am, Commentary from Chuck Ervin Windy mid-day update. While I was writing on KNP this morning, the Windy was making a major push up toward Tobias Peak. About 4:30am the fire overran the communication site at Tobias peak, visible on the remote cameras stationed there. It appears from the timelapse footage that … Read more
Here is an updated virtual tour of the #FawnFire for September 26. This shows heat mapping from September 25 at 9:45pm. The fire was active yesterday on the north flank, backing down toward Shasta Lake. Southern parts of the fire did not spread.
Here is a guest photo essay from Darin McQuoid. He saw a post we did last week on the fires in the Southern Sierra where we mentioned tree mortality, so he sent us these great photos. We welcome submissions like this. Thanks, Darin! December 12, 2015: Tree mortality from bark beetle. Castle Rock and Paradise … Read more
WINDY FIRE Commentary by Chuck Ervin ***** Maps and Captions by Ryan Stephens 11am update from a knowledgeable local via wildfireintel.org: Pretty quiet this morning in Pine Flat. Fire made it to the northwest part of the community near Flying T and Rocking K yesterday, but there were no issues. Tons of resources remain in … Read more
KNP COMPLEX Commentary by Chuck Ervin ***** Maps and Captions by Ryan Stephens Overview Map – IR Flight – September 23 – 11:11pm: Overview of 24 hour fire growth looking east. MAP LAYERS: Giant Sequoia Groves are Shaded GREEN. The area between red and white lines around the perimeter of the fire show roughly … Read more
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
Here is information on the Fawn Fire, burning northeast of Redding. General Fire Location The fire slowed down significantly this afternoon under a heavy aerial attack that had at least 12 tankers working at the peak of the firefight. Here is an update from NorthOps — the regional fire coordination center at the Redding … Read more
KNP Complex Commentary by Chuck Ervin ***** Maps and Captions by Ryan Stephens: Today’s Operations Map Alexander Pincus IR interpreters log, September 22 at 11:55pm: Observed perimeter growth along the majority of the western and northern sides of the perimeter. Several smaller fingers advancing past the perimeter to the east and south. MAP … Read more
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
9/21/2021 at 6am KNP COMPLEX Today’s Briefing Map IR Interpreter’s log Jeremy Hurd: Minor growth to perimeter, with the most significant in the SSW areas. Center of the perimeter continues to show some isolated heat sources as the scattered heat continues to withdraw toward the outer perimeters. Below are maps of the KNP Complex burning … Read more
9/20/2021 at 6am Briefing Map KNP Complex – Maps by Ryan Stephens, with commentary by Chuck Ervin. Below are maps of the KNP Complex burning in Sequoia National Park made from infrared data captured at 2306PDT (11:06pm) on September 19. IR Interpreter Alex Pincus log: Significant growth in the NNW section. Perimeter slightly grew to … Read more
9/19/2021 at 7:30am – Maps from Ryan Stephens Below are maps of the KNP Complex burning in Sequoia National Park made from infrared data captured at 2350PDT on September 18. IR Interpreter Alex Pincus log: -Imagery shows the fire advancing to the East NE and has reached the Wuksachi Lodge and crossed Clover Creek in … Read more
6:00am 9/18/2021 – Chuck Erwin KNP Complex KNP Complex IR this morning shows a major extension of the Colony Fire (both fires are well joined at this point) up through Marble Canyon. Then over the Generals Highway, impacting Red Fir and Wuksachi. Ash Mountain RAWS shows that the usual down slope, down canyon winds – … Read more
Here is a great map made by our friend Peter Hansen showing the Dixie Fire‘s spread across Lassen Park. As we have discussed in length on previous posts, the 2012 Reading Fire was a managed wildfire that escaped control and burned out of the park. Nine years later, the Reading played a major role in … Read more
09/17/2021 – 8pm update from our correspondent, Chuck Ervin. Div A is clearing Paradise Ridge towards General’s Highway (as reported this morning). Shepard Saddle Roads being improved as well with dozer and retardant line, courtesy of CALFIRE. Structure protection is ready as far up as Grant Grove, down to Three Rivers and out to Silver … Read more
The fires burning in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and on the Tule River Indian Reservation are a bit outside our territory, but as Caldor and Dixie Fires wind down, we have some bandwidth to post the heat maps. I (Zeke) am a Northern Sierra kid and not familiar with this part of the world … Read more
UPDATE: 9/15/2021, 1:35pm Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sacramento CA 134 PM PDT Wed Sep 15 2021 .SYNOPSIS… Chances of moisture (not a bunch) increasing with best chances on Sunday. Cooling definitely on track with coolest day Sunday. Some gusty winds possible early next with temperatures slowly rising. && .DISCUSSION… The cooling trend has … Read more
Getting the Wildfire Story Wrong We have been hearing a lot of people express concern about the amount of acreage burned in Lassen Volcanic National Park during the Dixie Fire. Part of this is the fault of sloppy reporting and articles by nationally respected publications that are getting the story wrong. This is common. Our … Read more
Good morning. The Dixie and Caldor heat maps showed no significant new growth overnight. Caldor, mapped at 11pm on September 12, had minor spread to the north near Kirkwood and some heat in Upper Strawberry Creek. Operations maps for today are show the south side of Echo Lake as being fully contained. At 8pm on 9/12/2021, … Read more
Hello everyone! I got pulled into a long day in the field for an in-depth story about the Dixie Fire, so our Caldor Fire coverage took a hit. I do post brief updates on Twitter @wildland_zko when I don’t have time for a full post here, so give me a follow there. Thanks to our contributor … Read more
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
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
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
9/8/2021 at 7pm Here is updated IR mapping from 4:45pm this afternoon. About 3,500 acres of new spread since 8pm last night, shown in purplish-red with yellow outline. For the most part, fire was still in the 2012 Reading Fire (blue) footprint at 4:45pm, but there were some spots taking off outside the perimeter and … Read more
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
9/7/2021 at 8am According to Daniel Swain at Weather West, there is a chance we may see “elevated convection, and possible dry thunderstorms, across central & northern CA for Thu into Fri period. Weak trough offshore will combine with subtropical moisture streaming northward to provide some risk of dry lightning.” Here is our 9/7/2021 Dixie … Read more
9/7/2021 at 8am We are getting great support from volunteers who are contributors on the wildfireintel.org website. Here are incident maps from Keith Flood, retired Situation Unit Leader on one of the Northern California Incident Management Teams, and heat maps plus commentary from Lookout contributor ‘Tumbleweed,’ a retired wildfire captain. From Keith: This morning’s update … Read more
9/6/2021 at 9pm Looking at the 5:20pm IR data, the spot fire near Bogard ran about 120 acres this afternoon, produced two three-acre spots about 1/4 mile in front of it, and was about 3/4 mile from the Bogard Rest Area. Looking closer at the IR last night, I noticed the spot that ran 30 … Read more
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