The fire in eastern North Carolina continues to grow, but due to light winds yesterday did not spread as much as it had in previous days. It is reported to be about 29,970 acres, but the smoke prevents aircraft from mapping the fire accurately. The fire continues to burn in Hyde, Tyrrell, and Washington Counties
The rising heat, smoke, and moisture in the convection column has created lighting and rain downwind of the fire. The thunder can be heard as far away as Washington and the smoke column has risen to 45,000 feet.
The fire is being managed by Reid Hildreth’s Type 2 Incident Management Team.
The temperature in the area was 96 degrees yesterday, but today, Saturday, it is predicted to reach 102 degrees with 42% relative humidity. The winds should be relatively light at 2-5 mph, increasing to 8 mph tonight. The wind direction will switch 180 degrees today, from northwest to southeast, which is always a challenge for firefighters. So far they have suffered two heat-related injuries.
The Planned Actions include:
“Hold containment lines to the north, east and south of the fire perimeter; continue water pumping operations to irrigate ground fire smoldering in peat soils; assess structure protection needs; deliver latest fire information at Roper community meeting.”
Update:
Here are two maps that show heat detected by satellites last night. Click on it to see a larger version.
On the map above the red color indicates active burning, the orange is heat from the last 12 hours, and black is the last 24 hours.
On the map above the red color indicates heat within the last 0 to 12 hours, orange is the last 12 to 24 hours, and yellow is 6 days previous to the last 24 hours.
