DixieFire Video Briefing from September 2, 2021 The Dixie continues to spread east toward Highway 395. We talk about recent fire spread, tactics being used to protect Quincy and other communities, and about limitations on our ability to fight these monster fires.
Here is a video briefing for the Caldor Fire for September 2, 2021 showing heat mapping from 3:00am.
9/1/2021, 6pm Update: Here is some afternoon infrared from Dixie. The southeast side of the fire, west of Milford, has been very active for several days. Strong SW winds have blown the fire about 20 miles northeast, growing the Dixie by about 65,000 acres in three days. The fire was about six miles from Highway … 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 – 10:30pm A huge run on the southeast side of the Dixie Fire today, a smaller run north of Silver Lake, and some activity in Genesee Valley. This post is about events that didn’t go the way firefighters wanted them to over past couple days. The intention here isn’t to trash firefighters who are … 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
UPDATE: 8/29/2021, 9:00pm Only got IR mapping at 3pm today, so here is where the fire was at that time. White line is last night’s perimeter. Blue is 2019 Walker Fire, Purple is 2020 North Complex. UPDATE: 8/29/2021, 8:00am Fire continues to spread toward Walker Mine, north of Greenhorn Ranch and south of Genesee Valley. … 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
UPDATEDÂ 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
7:30 pm UPDATE: Here are heat maps for Genesee Valley from 5:30pm on August 22, 2021. Fire continues to back into Genesee Valley. Not much else to report on the fire. The fire east of Highlands appears to have not crossed Highway 36 and the fire near Mill Creek looks to be cooling down. … 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
8pm update: Genesee Valley was the hub of much of the action today. Mill Creek/Highlands area looks like it is cooling down. Minor spread on N side of Lassen Park, and Fredoyer Summit. Some movement south toward Milford. Infrared mapping from 5pm, 8/21/2021. EARLIER: Good morning, everyone. Today is my dad’s 76th birthday and the … 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
UPDATE: 7:00 pm. Fire ran across the floor of Genesee Valley at the Heart K Ranch and made a big run up the hillside underburned 2 years ago in the Walker Fire (blue). That the Walker Fire reburned surprises the hell out of me. Most of the large trees survived the 2019 burn here, and … 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
UPDATE: 6pm IR. It looks like they were able to hook the spot fire on Fredonyer we were looking at earlier this afternoon. There is a small slopover on Hamilton Mountain Road in the same area, but no major blowouts along the road. I would expect crews to be firing the rest of this road … Read more
Lots of wind today, but no huge losses on any of the major lines as of 3pm. If you are a student of wildfire, this clip will probably give you the chills. Most firefighters have seen the Eagle Fire Burnover video many times in annual refresher trainings. It’s shown to remind us about unique dangers … Read more
Good evening. With a half million-plus acre fire, there is always something to report! Most fire we are looking at tonight is in locations that have been active for the past week, so let’s start the check-in. Today we got data from a Sentinel satellite orbit. This is like Christmas for map geeks. Here is … Read more
Good morning. If you are evacuated, I’m feeling for you, and hope I can give you some good news. UPDATES: An IR recon plane flew over the fire at 1pm, and captured this mapping of the fire south of Janesville. Not a lot of growth in past 10 hours. White line shows fire as mapped … Read more
UPDATE: The new fires on Morgan Summit have grown together and are 10,000 acres. A firing operation along Highway 89 aimed to keep the fire to the east of the Park Road. Firing occurred at the Visitor Center at the old ski area, and I have no intel on any damage to facilities there. Here … Read more
Good evening, The big news this evening is explosive growth of new lightning fires on Morgan Summit, on Highway 36 west of Dixie. These have escaped initial attack and are now growing rapidly. With the forecast winds for next two afternoons, there is a strong possibility they will merge with Dixie in next few days. … Read more