2018 Wildfire Season

[GoldMember]

Now into Hazardous at 327:

[KQ]

Really REALLY bad here right now. I feel bad for all the animals outside having to breathe this air. My horses don't looks so spunky.

Basically the same as above - from our friends at County Emergency Management. Nice of them to let us know there isn't a local threat:


We can confirm that are NO wildland fires currently burning in Walla Walla County. Smoke is coming to us from British Columbia and several Washington State fires. If you look closely at the satellite image you can see the fire locations as red dots.

[jono]

Until today the worst visibility I'd ever seen was in WW/Dayton driving through last summer. Today it's worse here (and, sorry KQ, headed your way).

How do they calculate visibility? It's reported at 1.5 miles at the airport nearest me and I know for sure I can't see more than a half mile.

[KQ]

Until today the worst visibility I'd ever seen was in WW/Dayton driving through last summer. Today it's worse here (and, sorry KQ, headed your way).

How do they calculate visibility? It's reported at 1.5 miles at the airport nearest me and I know for sure I can't see more than a half mile.

[El Kanone]

This is a scenic overlook at mid day. Normally looking at a lake and nice mountainous back drop.


It’s gotten real bad past few days. Pretty much all flights to towns in interior southern BC canceled.

No biking anymore.


Daughters got stranded in Calgary then flight diverted to bumfuk drove 3.5 one way to pick them up then that flight canceled so now they are stranded in Vancouver and no new flights scheduled for 3 days.




Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[KQ]

Daughters got stranded in Calgary then flight diverted to bumfuk drove 3.5 one way to pick them up then that flight canceled so now they are stranded in Vancouver and no new flights scheduled for 3 days.

I heard there are flight delays at SeaTac

[MakersTeleMark]

I heard there are first world problems. Even while sipping a latte trying to get on a machine that flies in the sky with a bunch of other people trying to charge their phones so that they can use the "internet".

[XXX-er]

I dropped the 2 cooks off at a new fire camp, a whole lota personel building the camp and cooking in that kitchen so they must be planning to feed a lot of hungry firefighters, the cooks were given some standard issue tents which they didn't seem all that excited about so I cheered them up by pointing out they will be so tired from the 14 hr days they won't even notice the tent .

meanwhile in town every night the water bomber pilots come in and drink beer at the craft brew, live in the hotel ... war must have been like this

[KQ]

I dropped the 2 cooks off at a new fire camp, a whole lota personel building the camp and cooking in that kitchen so they must be planning to feed a lot of hungry firefighters, the cooks were given some standard issue tents which they didn't seem all that excited about so I cheered them up by pointing out they will be so tired from the 14 hr days they won't even notice the tent .

meanwhile in town every night the water bomber pilots come in and drink beer at the craft brew, live in the hotel ... war must have been like this

Yup infantry vs. rock star pilots but yanno, getting shot out of the sky would kind suck. Less chance of being able to get patched up and surviving your injuries.

[GoldMember]

Until today the worst visibility I'd ever seen was in WW/Dayton driving through last summer. Today it's worse here (and, sorry KQ, headed your way).

How do they calculate visibility? It's reported at 1.5 miles at the airport nearest me and I know for sure I can't see more than a half mile.

Spokane reported half-mile visibility when particulate was 327. Now we're at 380. We're getting shit on here. The past four years around August have been brutal but today's the single worst day I remember.

[Norseman]

Spokane reported half-mile visibility when particulate was 327. Now we're at 380. We're getting shit on here. The past four years around August have been brutal but today's the single worst day I remember.

Ouch. Suck.

This was AQI ~100 in the Sound this evening...

[GoldMember]

KQ - It looks like you, at least have a little bit of rain heading your way tonight. I just hope there's no lightning with it.

Norseman - Yeah, we can stand 100 no problem. This shit is ridiculous.

[KQ]

KQ - It looks like you, at least have a little bit of rain heading your way tonight. I just hope there's no lightning with it.

Norseman - Yeah, we can stand 100 no problem. This shit is ridiculous.

Great. We're having a lightening storm. This wasn't in any forecast I saw tonight. At least we got the last field of wheat harvested today. Now it will just be a stubble fire.

Spokane reported half-mile visibility when particulate was 327. Now we're at 380. We're getting shit on here. The past four years around August have been brutal but today's the single worst day I remember.

Pendleton is at 455!

[Lahar]

Getting closer...

[neckdeep]

Wigwam fire west of Ennis.

There goes about $40,000 in one big red whoosh. VLATs, the answer to the question: how do you make a gallon of water cost $2

[XXX-er]

up here the airtractor fire boss is the plane i've seen the most, the first time they flew in I thot my mind was going cuz I seen the same plane 4 times but they deploy the fireboss in flights of 4

Suposed to be the most cost effective way to fight a fire and actualy hit what you are aiming for

[Meadow Skipper]

Wigwam fire west of Ennis.

There goes about $40,000 in one big red whoosh. VLATs, the answer to the question: how do you make a gallon of water cost $2

$2/gallon is just the cost of the mud. It costs roughly another $2/gallon to deliver it via aircraft, so yeah, the total for a load delivered by a DC10 is about $40,000...not counting the over $50,000/day availability bill.

Aircraft (which are provided by contractor, not gov’t owned) costs often make up over half the total cost of suppression at a large fire.

/random factoiding.

[Kevo]

Being an air tanker pilot seems like it would be such an awesome job. Can't think of too many non-military fixed-wing aviation jobs that would be more exciting or enjoyable.

[XXX-er]

One of those air tractors or the bird dog spotter planes would be pretty exciting stuff

[TAFKALVS]

$2/gallon is just the cost of the mud. It costs roughly another $2/gallon to deliver it via aircraft, so yeah, the total for a load delivered by a DC10 is about $40,000...not counting the over $50,000/day availability bill.

Aircraft (which are provided by contractor, not gov’t owned) costs often make up over half the total cost of suppression at a large fire.

/random factoiding.

Are they actually effective or are they just a big PR move?

[Meadow Skipper]

Yeah, lead plane pilot is actually more exciting (imo) and safer (historically) than flying air tankers. They fly over the fire in a small-to-mid sized twin engine plane working to scout the best, safest, most effective lines, then bring in the air tanker to show them the line and the start and end point for the drop.

If I’m not wrong, VLATs require a lead plane for their drop, and regular Large Air Tankers and Single Engine Air Tankers can drop without a lead if the pilot is initial attack rated. But the LATs in particular generally like having a lead plane because the lead will pick the drop spot in conjunction with the ground crews and all the LAT has to do is fall in behind the lead and put it where the lead shows them. That saves the LAT from having to circle and talk and get oriented with ground crews on the radio.

SEATs are generally pretty good at working with the ground crews, and their loads are smaller so they’re generally dispatched for initial attack fires rather than large ones.

One other trivia note: if there are more than two aircraft over a fire, or the fire is complex there will probably be an air tactical group supervisor (a highly experienced firefighter, aka air attack boss) up higher over the fire, coordinating the air show traffic so that aircraft don’t run into each other and working with the people on the ground. Sometimes the air attack person will ride in the lead plane.

[Meadow Skipper]

Are they actually effective or are they just a big PR move?

Both. It depends.

Sometimes when a fire is really raging and/or the canopy is really dense or dry and/or the wind is howling and/or the terrain is unfavorable and/or there aren’t ground crews (boots on the ground) to follow up the drop (because the stuff dropped is retardant, not extinguisher) then it’s likely pissing in the wind and done to appease the public, politicians, and news media showing them that everything possible is being done. And it can be hard for people to to imagine how intense the pressure can be from that.

But when the weather and/or the fuels and/or the terrain are favorable and/or there are boots on the ground to follow up, retardant can be the best thing in the fucking world by knocking down flames allowing the crews to secure whatever the target is.

You guys got me going. I pounded a lot of ground and did a fair amount of air tactical group supervisoring back in my career days.

[S_jenks]

Finally, rain!

First appreciable precipitation in well over a month. Been a fairly generous amount on the ground so far, and it's damn nice seeing puddles on the ground once more.
NWS radar paints a nice picture:

Hoping that the moisture eventually makes it up to the Howe Ridge fire in Glacier.

[capulin overdrive]

Are they actually effective or are they just a big PR move?

That's what i was wondering. 40 grand could get 27 miles of quality garden hose, maybe more at bulk pricing!

[bodywhomper]

Good time to repost this brief story about one of my neighbors. “In the smoke til I croak.”

https://youtu.be/6aILfg1KRcg

Calfire used their new 747 vlat last summer in the canyon that I live in (South Yuba River) on a small but high consequence fire while it was on approach to a larger fire near Oroville. Very impressive and loud!