7:30 p.m. PDT, Aug 5, 2021
The spread of the Dixie Fire Thursday was made more complex and unpredictable by the passage of a weather trough. It hit the fire area in the afternoon and brought a significant change in the wind, shifting it from the south or southwest to come out of the west or west-northwest. This may not seem like a huge difference, but wind is the primary factor affecting the direction of spread of a vegetation fire. A 90-degree change in wind direction can turn the flank of a fire into the head. Next to the heel or back of a fire, the flank can sometimes be a somewhat safe place from which to attack a fire, unless it burning in extremely dry vegetation pushed by strong winds. (Which is often the case over the last several years.)
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
Radar that was detecting smoke showed the wind shift in real time Thursday afternoon.
Wind shift occurring now on #DixieFire as trough moves overhead, putting additional towns in danger. Plume shift visible from KDAX radar. pic.twitter.com/BLMlWknblV
— Courtney Carpenter (@CourtECarpenter) August 5, 2021
Firefighters who were on the right flank of the Dixie Fire today were no doubt warned by their Incident Meteorologist to expect the east flank Thursday afternoon to become the head of the fire, moving east quickly in their direction pushed by strong winds.
Westwood is a community of about 1,600 residents on Highway 36, 11 miles north of Greenville and 11 miles east of Chester. If the fire moves north from Greenville it will be threatened, and, if it moves east from Chester, it will be threatened.
By 3:15 p.m. Thursday the Dixie Fire, after destroying many of the structures in Greenville, had continued to spread 6 miles further north from the town. With long range spotting it reached Mountain Meadows Reservoir. If it finds a way around it, another 5 miles with a south or southwest wind and it could be at Westwood.
Another danger to Westwood is the northwest portion of the fire that burned over the Chester airport Wednesday and continued north during the night and Thursday, chewing through another 14 miles of forests. It looks like those 14 miles of the east flank could become a 14-mile wide head fire at least for a short time if the forecast pans out as expected.
The prediction for the Westwood area Thursday was for the winds to change direction in the afternoon to come out of the west at 13 mph with 21 mph gusts. The good news is the period of strong winds will be brief. At 8 p.m. it should decrease to 6 mph but still be from the west, and by 11 p.m. slow to 2 mph.
Obviously, Westwood is under a mandatory evacuation order by the Lassen County Sheriff’s office. (More information about evacuations.)
Keep the firefighters and the residents in your thoughts.
9:10 a.m. PDT Aug. 5, 2021
Many, if not most of the structures along the highway 89 corridor through Greenville, California were destroyed Wednesday when the Dixie Fire rapidly spread through the town 57 air miles northwest of Oroville. Structures in other areas of Greenville also burned, but firefighters were able to save some.
The fire has now burned approximately 322,000 acres.
The fire crossed Highway 89 in half a dozen places Wednesday between Greenville and Chester, burning to the shore of Lake Almanor in several locations. It also jumped indirect firelines south of Highway 36 and not slowed, was eight miles north of the highway, burning fiercely during an 11:45 p.m. mapping flight. There are indications from satellite imagery at about 3 a.m. Thursday, not yet confirmed, that it had grown an additional five miles north in that three-hour period, aided by long-range spotting.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
The Dixie Fire mostly skirted around the west side of Chester after burning around the airport runways. We have not seen any reports of extensive damage in that area — yet.
Unfortunately, the #DixieFire destroyed most of #greenville today. More pix here: https://t.co/zpEFuvqu7N @AFPphoto pic.twitter.com/qhgKKgJvpW
— Josh Edelson (@JoshEdelson) August 5, 2021
Central Greenville after the Dixie Fire tore through this afternoon. #DixieFire (last five are Chester earlier in day)https://t.co/SxOip3W0kc
— Noah Berger (@noahberger3884) August 5, 2021
11:31 p.m. PDT August 4, 2021
Strong winds, low humidity, and dry vegetation helped push the northeast side of the Dixie Fire through Greenville, California and across Highway 89 in several places Wednesday afternoon. It was really bad news for many of the residents and business owners, as documented by reporters who entered the town after the worst of the fire passed over after having destroyed multiple structures.
Data from a 6:50 p.m. mapping flight Wednesday showed that the northwest side of the fire was even more violent, raging in the wind, spreading for five to eight miles to the north-northeast, running along the shore of Lake Almanor, crossing Highway 36, burning around the runways at the airport, and skirting around the west side of Chester.
Wednesday’s Red Flag Warning will continue until Thursday evening. The forecast for Chester on Thursday calls for 79 degrees, 10 to 14 mph winds in the afternoon out of the southwest gusting to 21 mph, and relative humidity in the low teens. The weather combined with low fuel moisture and the Energy Release Component at Quincy which is above the 97th percentile, will make it another day that fire behavior will challenge firefighters.
humans look for ways to make changes that improve production of everything and without consideration of the long term effects on everything else changing the land for food production had negative consequences and it forced us to adjust other things everything on earth is connected and effects short term and long term will happen. we just have never examined All the negative effects long and short term (months years and centuries!) or we knew what would happen but decided to put me before the people who come after me and the horrible things they will have to face
I agree with the logging comment, logging does not solve everything. There is a fire up here in NE WA that is cranking along – mainly in LOGGING SLASH. Waist deep slash. What I have seen in my years with the Forest Service is that logging takes the biggest and best, leave the crap and all the slash. That IS NOT fuels reduction. It should be leave the biggest and best, clean up the saplings/reprod without soil disturbance and no slash. They use the guise of logging to reduce fuel loading, when it’s just putting money in the lumber companies pockets and not doing a darn thing to reduce the real fuel loading. And human encroachment into the urban interface is not helping. So many people leaving the cities and moving into NE WA, into the woods, guess what happens. Careless humans, firefighting efforts go to protecting their home. Wildlife loss, habitat loss, etc. Us humans need to wake up and start paying attention to what we are doing!
Sorry Retired…but I’m not holding my breath on that one., ie, waking up
Agree. Here in CE Idaho, in Gibbonsville area, huckleberry picking last fall, we drove way up off of Hwy 93, an old logging road to pick berries. There were huge piles of slash left, after they’d logged. I wondered, why have these been left, not burned? Now the Lost Trail Fire could be a concern as it’s crossed the Divide and 3 mi out from Gibsville.
Back in the 1980’s did the ‘pickup sticks – put them in a pile – burn’ on the PNF. Then the idea of logging was to clear cut everything between 100′ of the creeks and ridgelines. Just south of La Porte there is/was a ‘demonstration’ forest of Ponderosa plantings. They looked rather shabby. Look at pictures from the Red River Lumber Co around Chester in the early 1920’s before the logging began, looks like almost no under-story. They cut it all down. South of hiway 70 there was a huge fire in I think 1927, except for the plaque and the ash sediment layer, who would know now?
Do not tell me that logging folks know how to manage the forest. Ha.
I worked on the Greenville RD and lived at the old CCC Camp at Canyon Dam (also Beckwourth RD at Antelope Lake) conducting forest inventory surveys in the 1980. Walking thru WF and DF stands throughout the Plumas to get to our plots were easy and not much of a physical challenge.
Fast forward to 2012. I was DIVS above Butt Lake on the Chips Fire (Dixie has blown past Butt Lake). We had the task of firing out a piece of line that was nothing but dead and down White fir natural mortality. We couldn’t get it to light despite all the dead fuel accumulation and jackpots. Crane Valley IHC was wading thru 4 foot WF dead and down. The natural fuel accumulations and lack of stand management seem to be driving the explosive fire behavior that the Dixie is exhibiting.
Those of us that live amidst the trees must seriously look at our “head-in-the-sand” imaginings that this will never happen to me (us). Once we are burned out we have the opportunity to rebuild and replant. For us older folk, not in our lifetime, but younger generations will have the opportunity to live in these beautiful “post-burned-out” places, “post-COVID”. Watersheds will heal, vegetative communities and their associated wildlife will return. Should “next time” come, heed evacuation orders so firefighters can tend to the task at hand rather than having to divert their attentions to assuring the safe exit of those who chose not to evacuate! We are all in it together. LR
Well said and sound advice. My wife wanted a place in the woods here in Montana. Luckily I was able to dissuade her. I hate to think what it would be like now, in my 70’s, dealing with a disaster like these poor folks have on their hands. Prayers on the wing for all of them and all of our Fire & Emergency personnel. jw
Hats off to you for all of your service! A name I recognize from back in the day. MNF E-877.
Um….that is wishful thinking in an era of exponential climate chaos. You really think once all the forests hxve burned that things will go back to normal? I do not wish nor hope for climate chaos, but look at the past five years and then tell me the next five will be any different. Look at BC, Siberia, S. Europe, not to mention Australia. It’s global and what we’re dealing with now is caused by CO2 emissions from decades ago. Returning to the good old days if logging is wishful thinking at best.
Hey? Not wishful thinking. The good old days inhabit the void between our ears. Obviously things won’t return to what was. It can never be the same but, however it restores itself, in a relative way it will still be beautiful in the eyes of future generations who live there. Ecologically/biologically, change is ever-present. Humanity’s impact is a never-ending increasing acceleration of those natural forces. I’ve been preaching the following for decades…. When a body decides it’s time to move from a place once beautiful but now defiled by overpopulation, ever-expanding construction, newer attitudes that suck, etc., the day that person leaves several more will move in thinking it is such a wonderful place. And so the process rolls on. To a degree though, wherever that person moves, it contributes to ever-increasing defilement/degradation of Eden, Mother Earth. LR
I remember how different the woods here in Nor Cal were when we had a healthy logging industry . The fire threat was always here but when the logging industry was strong there was much better managing of the woods. There wasnt all the deadfall and undergrowth to fuel fires like there is now. The woods were much better managed. Global Warming certainly is a real thing but its far from being the only cause of these fires. PG&E not maintaining its equipment properly for so long added to the loss of most of the forest management that took place when we had a healthy logging industry . Add Rising Temps and drought to the mix and here we are facing wildfires that are almost impossible to slow and extinguish at times. Its not like wildfires are preventable . But at least they used to be manageable.
So true.