The firefighters staffing a helibase near the Canyon 2 Fire in Orange County were probably aware of the proximity of the fire.
Orange County Fire Authority photo, around October 10, 2017.
Category: Uncategorized
California firefighters will have to battle strong winds again Saturday
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado for strong winds and low humidity.
The warnings issued are for many different fire weather areas, the borders of which you can see on the map. Most of the warnings in northern California expire Saturday night, while the southern California areas generally expire at various times on Sunday. The Colorado warnings are valid until Saturday evening.
The map was current as of 9:30 a.m. MDT on Saturday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Northern California fires as seen from 1,000,000 miles away
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized4 Comments on Northern California fires as seen from 1,000,000 miles away 
This is what smoke from the fires in northern California looks like as seen from the Earth Polychromatic Camera on the DSCOVR spacecraft orbiting a million miles away. (via @SanGasso and NASA)
Interview with Amanda Marsh
Amanda talked about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, her late husband Eric, the movie that will be out in a week, horses, and what it is like being the spouse of a wildland firefighter.
If you are having trouble viewing the video above, you can see it on YouTube.
The version above is 26 minutes long; a 6-minute version is HERE.
This interview with Amanda Marsh was filmed the day after the red carpet screening in Phoenix of the movie “Only the Brave”, which is about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a 20-person crew of wildland firefighters. In 2013, 19 members of the crew, including her husband Eric, perished in the Yarnell Hill Fire south of Prescott, Arizona.
You might think the film is solely about the tragedy, but most of it is about the firefighters, their families, relationships, and building a crew.
We are very appreciative of Amanda for spending time with us. Three days before, she was in Los Angeles for the red carpet premiere and 14 hours before we filmed this she was at the Phoenix event. It does not show, but she was tired and said she was glad that her official appearances related to the movie were over.
The film will be released nationwide October 20, 2017. We reviewed it on October 11.
Be sure and catch the very end of the interview.
Red Flag Warnings in California and Colorado
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings in California and Colorado.
North of San Francisco enhanced fire weather conditions will return Friday night and Saturday with 20 to 30 mph northeast winds gusting at 40 to 50 mph. Isolated gusts up to 60 are possible on the highest ridges and peaks. The humidity will be in the teens during the day and between 25 and 35 percent at night.
The map was current as of 11 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.
Northern California wildfires claim 31 lives and 137,000 acres
Above: map showing four of the larger wildfires north of San Francisco: Pocket Fire, Tubbs Fire, Nuns Fire, and Atlas Fire. They were mapped Thursday night between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. PDT.
(Originally published at 11:28 a.m. PDT October 13, 2017)
Calmer winds and higher humidity on Thursday slowed wildfires burning north of San Francisco in Sonoma and Napa Counties, allowing firefighters to make progress toward containment, but each of the large blazes still added thousands of acres to their footprints.
Statewide in California there are 17 active wildfires that have burned a total of 221,754 acres. Approximately 8,000 firefighters are battling the blazes and thousands of residents have evacuated. At least 3,500 homes have been destroyed this week according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The death toll has risen to 31 and many people are unaccounted for.
Here is a closer look at the four largest fires in Sonoma and Napa Counties, working north to south. The sizes were updated by mapping flights Thursday night and total about 137,000 acres:
- The Pocket Fire northeast of Geyserville and southeast of Cloverdale has grown to 9,996 acres. It was most active on the southeast side Thursday.
- The 34,617-acre Tubbs Fire has burned at least 2,800 homes and many commercial buildings in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. It did not expand much on Thursday, but was fairly active in some areas on the north and northeast sides. The fire is also burning in Napa County and is on both sides of Highways 128 and 101.
- The Nuns Fire has merged with the Adobe and Norrbom Fires between Highways 116 and 121 — north, northwest, and east of Sonoma in both Napa and Sonoma Counties. The combined blaze now covers 44,381 acres. It was active on Friday northeast of the city of Sonoma and on the east flank in Napa County.
- The Atlas Fire has burned 48,228 acres and is 17 miles long and about 6 miles wide. It is southeast, east, and north of Napa, primarily in Napa County.
The strong winds that have driven the fires decreased Friday, but Red Flag Warning conditions will return Friday night and Saturday with 20 to 30 mph northeast winds gusting at 40 to 50 mph. Isolated gusts up to 60 are possible on the highest ridges and peaks. The humidity will be in the teens during the day and between 25 and 35 percent at night.
The Red Flag Warning is in effect from 5 p.m. PDT Friday until 11 p.m. Saturday.
In the video below, Tanker 944, a 747, drops on the Pocket Fire.
#CalFire uses its 747 #Supertanker to try to smother #Geyserville #fire with l-o-n-g air drops of about 20K gallons of retardant. pic.twitter.com/uPbcNEpGKy
— RobertHanda (@RHandaNBC) October 12, 2017
