Above: The distribution of wildfire smoke, current as of 2:09 p.m. MDT August 3, 2017.
(Originally published at 2:50 p.m. MDT August 3, 2017)
Smoke from wildfires in the United States Northwest and southern British Columbia is accumulating in those areas causing, in some areas, significant degradations in air quality. In British Columbia many massive fires combined with light winds has resulted in the smoke not being transported out of the area.
Air quality August 3, 2017 for western Canada and parts of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
Some areas in BC, western Montana, and the western portions of Washington and Oregon have “unhealthy” air quality today, according to Air Now.
Missoula County Sheriff T.J. McDermott announced that a wildland firefighter was killed Wednesday August 2 on the Lolo Peak Fire in the Lolo National Forest in Western Montana. The Sheriff said Brent M. Witham, 29, of Mentone, California, died in a “tree felling” accident. Dispatchers said the man was given CPR after being struck by a falling tree, but rescuers were unable to save his life.
He was a member of the Vista Grande Hotshots, based in Idyllwild, California according to Lolo Peak fire information officer Mark Struble.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Witham’s friends, family, and coworkers.
Map of the perimeter of the Lolo Peak Fire, at 2 a.m. MDT August 3, 2017.
Two weeks ago another firefighter was killed by a falling tree on the Lolo National Forest. Trenton Johnson 19, died June 19 while helping to suppress the Florence Fire, a small fire near Florence Lake northeast of Seeley Lake.
Between 1990 and 2014 18 firefighters were killed on wildland fires by hazardous trees, which was 4 percent of the 440 firefighter deaths in the stats for that period kept by the National Interagency Fire Center.
Started July 15 by lightning, the Lolo Peak Fire has burned 6,542 acres 8 miles southwest of Lolo, Montana south of US Highway 12.
This article was updated August 4 to include the name and photo of the firefighter after it was released by the Sheriff.
Above: Satellite photo taken August 2, 2017 showing smoke from some of the wildfires in British Columbia. The red dots represent heat detected by a sensor on the satellite
(Originally published at 9:50 p.m. MDT August 2, 2017)
Firefighters in British Columbia are dealing with over 100 wildfires that are larger than 0.01 hectare. The location for four of the largest can be seen on the map below which shows heat detected by a satellite on Wednesday.
Map showing heat from fires in British Columbia detected by a satellite at 3:12 p.m. MDT August 2, 2017. Click to enlarge.
Here are very brief of summaries of four of the largest fires:
Hanceville-Riske Creek, 60 kilometers southwest of Williams Lake. The Hanceville and the Riske Creek Fires are being managed as one. Together they have burned 134,000 hectares (331,000 acres).
Quesnel West, 4 km north of the Baezaeko River. 36,000 HA (88,000 acres).
Tautri Complex, 85 km northwest of Williams Lake. 64,000 HA (84,000 acres).
Elephant Hill, near Ashcroft. 84,000 HA. (207,000 acres).
The weather forecast for Ashcroft near the Elephant Hill fire looks grim for firefighters — over 100F every day for the next week with the relative humidity around 20 percent or below. It looks better for Williams Lake with highs in the high 80’s and low 90’s with the relative humidity in the mid-20’s.
Above: The Cove Fire in northeast California. Uncredited and undated; posted to Inciweb August 2, 2017.
(Originally published at 12:25 p.m. PDT August 2, 2017)
One of the fires in the Modoc July Complex of fires on the Modoc National Forest in northeast California was extremely active Tuesday and Tuesday night. The Cove Fire, now three miles northwest of Adin, population 272, spread two to four miles to the southwest and one mile southeast, doubling in size. It added another 10,000 acres to bring the size to about 22,000 acres. All of the fires in the Complex combined have burned a total of 73,465 acres.
The Cove Fire became plume dominated Tuesday and by evening had generated cloud-to-cloud lightning and increased winds as a result of the intense heat buildup and atmospheric conditions. Extreme fire behavior in the form of fire whirls and spotting caused the fire to further advance southwest towards a prepared dozer line near County Roads 90 and 87. Resources were immediately deployed to connect the dozer line around the fire’s southwestern edge and protect structures. They utilized tactical firing to reinforce and create a buffer inside the dozer line.
The additional growth moved into lighter fuels which should offer less resistance to control.
Map of the Cove Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 1:30 a.m. PDT August 2, 2017. The white line was the perimeter about 27 hours before. The red dots represent heat detected by a satellite at 2:48 a.m. PDT August 2.
Another fire in the Complex, the Steele Fire east of Clear Lake, was active but remained within the constructed fireline around the northeast corner of the fire. Crews put in handline along the east side to tie two dozer lines together and Wednesday will be working on fireline along the entire eastern edge.
All of the articles about the Modoc July Complex of fires can be found here, with the most recent at the top.
The fires are consuming thousands of acres each day and producing large quantities of smoke.
Above: Satellite photo taken August 1, 2017 showing smoke produced by wildfires in western Montana and Northeastern Idaho. The red dots represent heat detected by a sensor on the satellite.
(Originally published at 10:48 a.m. MDT August 2, 2017)
The residents of Western Montana have been dealing with wildfire smoke for several weeks and there is no relief in sight.
Our map above identifies eight of the largest blazes in the area. Here are a few facts about some of them, with them ranked in priority order according to fire management officials.
Rice Ridge: Six miles north of Seeley Lake, MT; 3,994 acres, 150 personnel assigned.
Sunrise: Six miles south of Riverbend, 9,900 acres, 548 personnel assigned.
Sapphire Complex: Three fires, 15 miles southeast of Clinton, MT, 12,756 acres, 864 personnel assigned.
Lolo Peak: 8 miles southwest of Lolo, MT, 5,724 acres, 822 personnel assigned.
Arrastra Creek: 6 miles northwest of Lincoln, MT, 3,675 acres, 127 personnel assigned.
Whetston Ridge: 25 miles southwest of Philipsburg, MT, 3,621 acres, 30 personnel assigned.
Today I have been experimenting with an app that recently became available for iPhones and iPads, called Plotagraph. It can be used to animate still photos and seems like a natural for manipulating photographs of fires. You can’t use the app to create new stuff in the photo, but you can take what’s there and make it move.
So far I’ve worked on three photos. One had flames that were fairly easy to isolate and another had smoke that was easy to work with. The third was a B-17 dropping retardant.
The way it works is, first you identify what areas in the photo you do not want to animate, then you indicate the direction and speed for the motion. When finished, it can be saved as a video.
The first one, below, shows a member of the Alpine Hotshots who was working on the 2014 Norbeck Prescribed Fire in Custer State Park.
