Creek Fire - Fresno/Madera Counties

[Josue Diaz]

Utterly devastated by the Creek Fire that is burning through the forests I call home, where I learned to love the mountains. I know they will regrow, and our forests have evolved to withstand fire, but it's still sad to have ash from these fires floating down over Fresno for 3 days now as the forest burns and know they will look so different once this is over. The blaze erupted Friday night, and we learned of it Saturday morning as we were heading up the Sierra to kayak an alpine lake. The Sierra National Forest/Kaiser Wilderness/San Joaquin River Gorge/Yosemite NP... I climb, hike & camp in these areas all the time, it's sad to think not everyone is as careful with fire as they should be. I believe this fire started by a careless camper. 

Here's to better times - rock climbing near Shaver Lake on a sunny winter afternoon

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Josue Diaz

[Silas_Sancona]

VERY bad summer for fires across CA ( and here also.. ) this year.. Don't recall seeing quite as many "high toppers" ( my nickname for fires that shoot smoke plumes above 25-30K ft ) as have occurred there this year, esp. west of the Sierras/ S. Cal.

Cousin and his family lost their home in the Santa Cruz incident last week. .Just purchased it about 2 years ago. Would bet several other people i knew years ago, who likely still live up there suffered damage or lost homes as well. Big Basin will be something else to visit once the fires out and the park is opened. That fire was crazy enough.. The SCU Complex that crawled up Mt. Hamilton at the same time the Santa Cruz Mountains were going up would be something  to see considering the area it has burnt. Surprised it did not make a run for Henry Coe -west of the wilderness that faces Gustine and Patterson.  That said, knowing that area, i have known for years that it was just a matter of time before it all would burn.. San Jose facing side of the Santa Cruz Mtns, south of Los Gatos, is another area where the clock is ticking. Hasn't burned since i was born, and likely much longer. Thinking it was placed in the extreme fuel load capacity category back in 1989. Have the article somewhere..

Considering what -isn't- being forecast going forward, fall / winter ahead are going to be interesting for sure.

Smoke from the Creek Fire/ August Complex made it here right around sunset and can smell hints of it when the wind kicks up.. Would be the 3rd significant smoke event we've had since June.

[Josue Diaz]

12 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

VERY bad summer for fires across CA ( and here also.. ) this year.. Don't recall seeing quite as many "high toppers" ( my nickname for fires that shoot smoke plumes above 25-30K ft ) as have occurred there this year, esp. west of the Sierras/ S. Cal.

Cousin and his family lost their home in the Santa Cruz incident last week. .Just purchased it about 2 years ago. Would bet several other people i knew years ago, who likely still live up there suffered damage or lost homes as well. Big Basin will be something else to visit once the fires out and the park is opened. That fire was crazy enough.. The SCU Complex that crawled up Mt. Hamilton at the same time the Santa Cruz Mountains were going up would be something  to see considering the area it has burnt. Surprised it did not make a run for Henry Coe -west of the wilderness that faces Gustine and Patterson.  That said, knowing that area, i have known for years that it was just a matter of time before it all would burn.. San Jose facing side of the Santa Cruz Mtns, south of Los Gatos, is another area where the clock is ticking. Hasn't burned since i was born, and likely much longer. Thinking it was placed in the extreme fuel load capacity category back in 1989. Have the article somewhere..

Considering what -isn't- being forecast going forward, fall / winter ahead are going to be interesting for sure.

Smoke from the Creek Fire/ August Complex made it here right around sunset and can smell hints of it when the wind kicks up.. Would be the 3rd significant smoke event we've had since June.

Yeah, the plume of smoke coming off this fire Saturday morning was incredible. It's creating its own weather pattern too, generating electric storms as heat rises off the mountain. So sorry to hear about your cousin's home too. 

As of now, the Creek fire is at 145,000+ acres and at 0% containment. It's getting pretty low too, burning down toward Auberry, which is at 2000 feet in elevation (burning all the way up to 7000 feet in the National Forest near Huntington Lake/Kaiser Wilderness). 

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, Josue Diaz said:

Yeah, the plume of smoke coming off this fire Saturday morning was incredible. It's creating its own weather pattern too, generating electric storms as heat rises off the mountain. So sorry to hear about your cousin's home too. 

As of now, the Creek fire is at 145,000+ acres and at 0% containment. It's getting pretty low too, burning down toward Auberry, which is at 2000 feet in elevation (burning all the way up to 7000 feet in the National Forest near Huntington Lake/Kaiser Wilderness). 

Have had the region-wide satellite view up since the Lightning caused fires last month and could see when the Creek fire started. Stepped away to continue working on taking down the shade house and could see it exploding when i checked again.. Some of the videos i saw coming out of there Sat -which included the thunder being produced- were pretty crazy. While Pyro-Cu are common enough on big fires, full on, fire generated storms -producing everything from lightning, rain, and actual tornadoes- are something else i can't recall being seen -as often- as has occurred this year in the bigger fires, esp. closer to the coast..

Figured w/ the offshore winds picking up, the fire would make a run toward the west when some fire mapping imaging updates were posted this morning showing it starting to expand down hill.. Looks like several other big fires have started today on either side of Tahoe and N.W. of Sacramento also, and not just in CA. Oregon looks BAD right now on Satellite. 

Smoke is still pretty heavy here. Would assume it were thick high clouds rather than smoke looking out a window... 

[ahosey01]

I heard from the owner of the nursery that sells at https://www.giant-sequoia.com/ that they might lose the nursery to the fire.  Tragic.

[Josue Diaz]

1 hour ago, ahosey01 said:

I heard from the owner of the nursery that sells at https://www.giant-sequoia.com/ that they might lose the nursery to the fire.  Tragic.

The Intermountain Nursery in Prather sells these and their doorstep

[Silas_Sancona]

As if the situation in CA isn't bad enough, looks like BOTH Ashalnd and ..Medford.. Yes, you're reading that right,  are on fire as we speak.. Monitoring it over Twitter.  Wow!

[PalmatierMeg]

So sad to read all this. My extended family hails from that area of No Cal. My mother grew up in Los Gatos. My father's sister and nephews, later his father, lived in San Jose. One nephew still lives there. My younger cousin lives in the nearby mountains and had to evacuate from his home because of a fire. While he was gone, looters robbed his house and were caught in the act on security cameras. Police busted them and recovered most of the loot. It's all so terrible.

[Silas_Sancona]

Sobering images from the Bay area today:
 

 

 

 

[Hillizard]

With the high temperatures and thick atmosphere, we can pretend we're on Venus... without all the hassles and dangers of space travel!

[Silas_Sancona]

22 minutes ago, Hillizard said:

With the high temperatures and thick atmosphere, we can pretend we're on Venus... without all the hassles and dangers of space travel!

Blade Runner 2049?

We're sort of in a break from the smoke for now.. Was pretty bad yesterday before the tail of the same storm that dumped Snow over Denver came through.. Had a brief shower also, then the sun disappeared behind more smoke, well before it set.  Mucst have cleared out sometime late last night once the really cool air pushed through.  Craziest part of this storm was dew points dropping from 63deg here, to 16deg as the front crossed Sky Harbor. Think it got hung up over downtown for a few hours because dew points didn't start falling on this side of town until around 11PM.  Really nice this morning, Finally!

No doubt that once winds turn more onshore, or southwesterly, all the smoke over/ moving south down the coast off CA and Oregon is headed back this way.

[Josue Diaz]

Yeah, we've had eerie skies like that over Fresno since this fire broke out last weekend. Ash falling like snow a light snow at times. The sun is orange/red directly overhead, ominous glows at dusk and dawn. It's roughly 15 miles from N Fresno/Clovis at this point.

[Darold Petty]

Wednesday was unprecedented in my lifetime, (fifth generation Californian).  The orange sky was so dark that bird activity was suppressed, and one could not see even the orange, faint outline of the sun.

Here is a link about the cloud formation, don't know if it will work, as I pay for a subscription.  

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/The-fire-breathing-dragon-of-clouds-15557949.php

 

[Silas_Sancona]

As thought, smoke rolled  back in right around sunset yesterday and only thickened overnight/today..




Not so much of an orange glow as that " elevated, thick Fog " kind of look here today.  Might be the thickest the smoke event i have seen all summer/ since moving here.  Absolutely no shadows on anything.  Some thermally induced convective clouds forming atop the smoke layer atm casting darker shadows on sections of the lower smoke deck as they pass over it.. Could see all the local mountains while out running errands/ getting pictures of some stuff  so air quality, at least closer to the ground is still decent. Definitely putting a cap on forecast highs though.. Was forecast to reach 95 or so.. Still 88F.


Seeing the smoke has now reached all the way to the Netherlands, U.K., and Russia. Eye opening for sure..

Edited September 11, 2020 by Silas_Sancona
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[PalmatierMeg]

My brother-in-law near Lake Tahoe texted us he has trouble breathing even indoors from smoke drifting in from CA. He has emphysema from lifetime chain smoking. We invited him to come stay with us but he can't wear a mask on an airplane long enough to fly that many hours. The brother in Del Rio, TX, offered his place so we hope Steve can find a way to get there. I have asthma and know I couldn't live in such conditions. I can't go outdoors if there's a brush fire or a bout of red tide.

[Hillizard]

Yesterday the smoke was so thick where I live that even my N95 respirator mask failed. I could still smell smoke so it wasn't filtering out those particles while I was wearing it. First time that's ever happened during our annual extended wildfire seasons. I wear that type of mask for garden work; I wear a disposable surgical mask for Covid safeguarding (of others) when running errands in town.  Perhaps I need to invest in a military-grade gas mask to use when I'm out watering my palms?

[Josue Diaz]

This is high noon just outside of Fresno today - maybe 15 miles from the creek fire, near the King's River. We went out for a walk and it looked like a foggy, winter morning.