Dixie Fire grows by 25,000 acres

Bill Gabbert
August 13, 2021

6:30 p.m. PDT August 14, 2021

Dixie Fire map NW Side. The white line was the perimeter at 6:30 a.m. PDT Aug 14, 2021. The blue line was the perimeter 22 hours before. The yellow areas represent intense heat identified manually by the Infrared Analyst. Red dots are heat detected by a satellite at 1:51 p.m. PDT Aug. 14, 2021.

Here are some updated maps of the north half of the Dixie Fire. The south half is quiet.

Most of the fire activity Friday night and Saturday morning was:

Lassen Volcanic National Park;
Northeast and east of Chester;
South and southeast of Westwood;
West of Antelope Lake.

Dixie Fire map NE Side. The white line was the perimeter at 6:30 a.m. PDT Aug 14, 2021. The blue line was the perimeter 22 hours before. The yellow areas represent intense heat identified manually by the Infrared Analyst. Red dots are heat detected by a satellite at 1:51 p.m. PDT Aug. 14, 2021.

2:45 p.m. PDT August 13, 2021

Dixie Fire map — Dixie Fire NE Side. The white line was the perimeter at 8:05 a.m. PDT Aug 13, 2021. The blue line was the perimeter 30 hours before. The yellow areas represent intense heat.

The Dixie Fire in Northern California was extremely active Thursday afternoon, the following night, and again Friday afternoon. A mapping flight at 8:05 a.m. Friday found that in the previous 30 hours another 25,000 acres had been consumed to bring the total up to 535,000 acres.

The wind direction was quite variable Thursday due to outflows from passing thunderstorms. Since 8 a.m. Friday the Pierce weather station northwest of Antelope Lake has been recording winds out of the southeast at 3 to 7 mph with gusts to 21 mph. This wind direction, if seen over large sections of the fire, would tend to push it to the northwest. And in fact that is what happened at times over that 30-hour period, with the fire making significant advances to the northwest, moving farther into Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Friday the GOES 17 satellite showed large amounts of heat on the Dixie Fire beginning at 9 a.m. with intensity still building when this was written at 2:40 p.m. The heat accompanied by growing pyrocumulus clouds was concentrated in four areas:

Northwest part of the fire in Lassen Volcanic National Park;
North of Lake Almanor;
The Westwood area;
West of Antelope Lake, 14 miles south of Susanville.

(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)

On Friday firefighting resources were assembling near Highway 36 in the Westwood area in an effort to protect structures.

Due to increasing danger, Friday morning at 8:30 the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office cancelled the plan to repopulate Chester, Lake Almanor West, and Prattville.

Dixie Fire smoke radar — Dixie Fire smoke picked up on radar at 1:40 p.m. PDT Aug 13, 2021.

CAL FIRE reports that 592 residences have been destroyed, along with 131 commercial structures and 378 minor structures.

At its peak the 2013 Rim Fire east of Sonora, California, had over 5,000 personnel assigned, but I can’t recall a fire having 6,000. Thursday evening the Dixie Fire had 6,161, plus 520 fire engines, 173 water tenders, 20 helicopters, 81 hand crews, and 199 dozers.