California is Burning (Again)

[LightRanger]

^^^ That's funny.

Butte Fire is not. 32,000 acres this morning. Insanity.

[~mikey b]

big potential for growth today.

It's up on InciWeb

Butte, Amador-El Dorado Unit, Cal Fire. Cal Fire IMT 1 (Gouvea). One mile north of Mokelumne Hill, CA. Timber, chaparral and tall grass. Extreme fire behavior with short crown runs, group torching and spotting. Numerous structures threatened. Evacuations, road and area closures in effect.

September 11, 2015 at 10:54 AM

Fire behavior forecast:

The north side of the fire will continue to be lower activity as it backs up slope against the wind. The fire in the Mokelumne River will continue to flank at a slow rate of spread to the east. The southern portion of the fire, south of Highway 26 will continue to spread to the south at a rapid rate of spread with the north wind. Flame lengths in these areas will be 30 to 100 feet depending on the vegetation. Medium range spotting can be expected from torching trees and short dependent crown runs. In the evening the wind in the valleys and slopes will become variable with the approaching front. This will direct the fire up and downs canyon, contributing to fire spread to the east and west.

September 11, 2015 at 10:51 AM

Control objectives for today. Keep the fire:
North of Murray Dale and Mountain Ranch Roads
South of Hwy 88
East of Hwy 49
West of Railrod Flat Rd and the Community of Lynn Park Acres

[LightRanger]

Interesting system coming in early-mid next week. Potential for some moisture and temps below seasonal averages.

[riser4]

Colleague who lives somewhere out near Jackson and the Butte fire said she was evacuated. I am short on details.

[char]

Evacing east of 49 between hwy 4 and 26. And north of hwy 4 to Avery.

Doesn't match exactly with what is published, but that is a huge area.

[LightRanger]

Pretty sure we've talked about CalTopo's awesome MODIS overlay function in here, but if not:
http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.24...n=0.25&a=modis

Also, yeah, that mandatory evacuation area is HUGE.

[~mikey b]

I had to bug out of Arnold while I could.

This is really bad.

I am safe. Home not threatened at all.

[Viva]

Good luck, Mang.

Wish I was still in the area to help out.

[~mikey b]

I'm good. I work in Arnold and live in Twain Harte. It's my friends I worry about. The house that earlier picture was from is evacuated. Might have to do a quick and dirty harvest...,

[Viva]

I can help with that, too. Maybe later next week.

[LegoSkier]

Fuck. Now at 50000 acres and they are evacing San Andreas.

[~mikey b]

And parts of Angels Camp.

http://thepinetree.net/index.php?mod...w&ANN_id=45494

[LightRanger]

From ~45 minutes ago:


Saw this too :-(
https://vine.co/v/eFbOJa9q9Er

[Meadow Skipper]

A friend of mine that is a FS aircraft dispatcher in CA posted on FB that there are 10 - ten - air tankers, 2 lead planes and over 5 helicopters committed to the Butte fire. That's a lot of metal flying around - the air attack supervisor (airborne over the fire with responsibility for directing and coordinating air traffic) must be sweating bullets. The air radio frequency traffic has to be fucking nuts. I don't even want to think about the air-to-ground radio traffic.

I've handled 5 air tankers and 3 helicopters on a fire that was burning hard and I wanted to cry like a little girl.

[~mikey b]

I still have a good squirrel net freq that I recently passed on to a hand crew I know. Nice to be able to have your own black ops commo going.

[LightRanger]

Live news copter footage:
http://www.abc10.com/videos/news/2014/01/23/4798489/

Looks like this:

[LightRanger]

Another cool/useful map here:
http://ucmsparc.maps.arcgis.com/apps...afd1d7ac633df1

[~mikey b]

Lotta ganja in that smoke....

[LightRanger]

Grows were an issue on the Lowell Fire just outside of Dutch Flat earlier this summer too.

[Meadow Skipper]

IME, and from what I hear, grows have been an issue most everywhere in CA >1000' and <6000' elevation since 1978.

There have to be a lot of flashy fuels involved in the Butte fire.

[El Chupacabra]

Camping right now on Sonora Pass east side (near marine station, so have strong cell signal) - very heavy smoke.

[~mikey b]

Escaped smoke headed to Stinson Beach.

[Meadow Skipper]

Escaped smoke headed to Stinson Beach.

Solid plan. The coast is at its best this time of year.

[LightRanger]

In Healdsburg now and Calistoga later today (wedding). Nice.

[~mikey b]

Foggy cool breezy on shore wind this morning then a bug switch to warm off shore winds this afternoon. Quite a quick significant change.