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
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 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 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 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
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
I’m catching up on sleep and got some mapping help from a fellow who goes by Tumbleweed on one of the fire intel forums I follow. Here are his IR maps for Caldor, using data from 11:15pm on September 3, 2021. Thanks, Tumbleweed! Looking north over Meyers. White line shows 24 hours of fire spread … Read more
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
Here is a video briefing for the Caldor Fire for September 2, 2021 showing heat mapping from 3:00am.
This video takes viewers on a virtual map-based tour of the east end of the Caldor Fire, showing heat mapping around Echo Summit, Meyers, Kyburz, Kirkwood and South Lake Tahoe as mapped at 2:40pm, on September 1, 2021. NOTE: An area that was shown within the yellow fire perimeter in Christmas Valley in this video … Read more
Good afternoon. Here are the latest heat maps from the fire, from a flight flown at about 2:40pm on September 1. Orange areas were mapped on August 31 at 9pm. Yellow line is most current info, from 2:40pm on September 1. White line shows fire growth since the evening of August 30. Overview of fire. … Read more
8/31/2021, 7:15am Good morning. If you are evacuated from the Caldor or any other fire, I hope good information can bring you some calm. The fire spread actively yesterday, cascading down off Echo Summit into a large expanse of the west side of Christmas Valley. Around 5pm, a spot fire started on the east side … Read more
8/30/2021 – 8:00 am Good morning. Sending our best wishes to everyone displaced by this fire and living in fear of losing their home right now. I spent the last month on edge waiting to see if the Dixie Fire would take my parents’ and brother’s homes. I feel your anxiety. I am hoping we … Read more
Thanks to your donations to The Lookout, we are getting started with video and audio projects. Here is our first stab at a video briefing. We appreciate your support! VIDEO UPDATE: 8/29/2021, 6:00 pm. As of 5:20pm on August 29, the Caldor Fire had run to Phillips, within about 2.5 miles of Nebelhorn/Echo Summit. Heat … Read more
UPDATED 8/28/2021, 10 pm Here is the situation status summary from the incident command team on the fire. These can be downloaded daily from here: Significant Events The overnight inversion lingered in the lower elevations of the incident reducing fire activity until 14:00. Once the inversion broke, activity began to increase in Div D and … Read more
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
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
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
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
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