UPDATED August 15, 2020 | 6:17 p.m. PDT
The Lake Fire west of Lancaster, California is up to its old pyrocumulus tricks again as you can see in the photo above taken just before noon Saturday. In the afternoon it was very active and in one location forced firefighters to withdraw to a safer location.
Fire photographer Jeff Zimmerman said, “We are getting hundreds of down strikes to the north of the fire.” This can happen under certain conditions when extreme fire behavior creates a massive pyrocumulus cloud that can generate lightning. The phrase “a fire can create its own weather” is overused, but creating its own lighting is an example.
#LakeFire PyroCu putting out some lightning ⚡️on the north side. #cafire @NWSLosAngeles pic.twitter.com/TfNOiwv9AD
— Matt M (@psuweatherman) August 15, 2020
On Friday it made a three-mile run to the northeast down into the Antelope Valley but firefighters were able to keep it from crossing the California Aqueduct.
Air Tanker 944, the 747, was over the fire at 11:45 a.m. Saturday and returned to San Bernardino. As this was being written at 1:35 p.m. Saturday the aircraft was again en route to the same general area, probably to drop another 17,500 gallons.
August 14, 2020 | 4:15 p.m. PDT
The Lake Fire in southern California near Lake Hughes 17 miles west of Lancaster was very active again Friday afternoon. It is well established east of Pine Canyon road and at 4:30 p.m. was moving to the northeast approaching the California Aqueduct in the Antelope Valley.
Early Friday morning the Lake Fire was mapped at 11,637 acres.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Lake Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
