2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.
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TehipiteTom
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by TehipiteTom »

wildhiker wrote:Another good resource for viewing the smoke distribution from this or any other fire is the NOAA SSD satellite smoke analysis at:
http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Use the controls on the left side to zoom in and then click the layers you want on the right. Dense smoke is purple-brown, moderately dense is yellow, and thin smoke is green.

Wildfire smoke is just about the worst thing for a backpacking trip, in my opinion. Sort of the opposite of what we go there for - to get away from civilization and pollution. We were planning a backpack in southeastern Yosemite next week, but are going to head further north instead because of this Aspen Fire.

-Phil
Interesting, thanks for the link. Based on that map, looks like it's currently missing SeKi (but who knows how the wind may shift).
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rlown
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by rlown »

It might not matter how the wind shifts anymore. I noticed an orange glow sunset last night out my West facing kitchen window in petaluma. Come to find out it's the smoke from the Medford, OR fires is making it's way down the left coast. Totally obscured Mt St Helena which is only 20 miles away. Just gives my ankle more time to heal before i try and put it in a boot.

East side webcams look messy as well.
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The hermit
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by The hermit »

Camped at iceland lake in emigrant.Woke up to thick smoke sun. morning. Thankfully the smoke cleared by mid morning. The hike out was hard enough in the fresh air. I cant imagine breathing smoke all day.
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AlmostThere
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by AlmostThere »

TehipiteTom wrote:
wildhiker wrote:Another good resource for viewing the smoke distribution from this or any other fire is the NOAA SSD satellite smoke analysis at:
http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Use the controls on the left side to zoom in and then click the layers you want on the right. Dense smoke is purple-brown, moderately dense is yellow, and thin smoke is green.

Wildfire smoke is just about the worst thing for a backpacking trip, in my opinion. Sort of the opposite of what we go there for - to get away from civilization and pollution. We were planning a backpack in southeastern Yosemite next week, but are going to head further north instead because of this Aspen Fire.

-Phil
Interesting, thanks for the link. Based on that map, looks like it's currently missing SeKi (but who knows how the wind may shift).
Then there's smoke from another fire in SEKI....
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TehipiteTom
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by TehipiteTom »

rlown wrote:It might not matter how the wind shifts anymore. I noticed an orange glow sunset last night out my West facing kitchen window in petaluma. Come to find out it's the smoke from the Medford, OR fires is making it's way down the left coast. Totally obscured Mt St Helena which is only 20 miles away. Just gives my ankle more time to heal before i try and put it in a boot.

East side webcams look messy as well.
Smoky here in SF as well--we can barely see Angel Island, and the Marin mainland is completely gone right now.
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maverick
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by maverick »

Fire is now 25% contained, but has grown from 4500 acres (7/26) to 14,147 acres (7/30)
9,647 acres in 4 days. :eek:
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Xosob
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by Xosob »

M 7/29: Very smoky/hazy up by Ediza/Iceberg/Cecile/Minaret Lakes
Tu 7/30: Not particularly smoky in Touloumne in morning, but by noon on top of Ragged Peak & on return very smoky/hazy towards Minarets.
W 7/31: Better than previous two days in Mammoth.
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jessegooddog
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by jessegooddog »

The sierra and inyo mountains this morning from Big Pine north to Bishop (at least) were completely hidden by the smoke. Heading south this afternoon, I could see the smoke drifting down over Onion Valley into Independence. Yesterday was very windy, not a breath today, so it's just sitting. By reports I've heard first hand, Mammoth Lakes basin still has the worst of it.
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by SSSdave »

A good way to see where smoke is during daylight hours is to look at the 1k vis satellite:

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Running the animated version also allows a visual of which way the smoke is moving. Today the Aspen fire smoke appears to just be about the local San Joaquin River canyon areas. Likewise smoke from the fires up in Oregon are not moving south at all. It looks like much of the Sierra will be fine this weekend. I'm likely to be up in the Ebbetts area doing some closeup wildflower work playing with a new RF controlled remote shutter release on my G10.
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LightRanger
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Re: 2013 Fire & Smoke Reports

Post by LightRanger »

SSSdave wrote:A good way to see where smoke is during daylight hours is to look at the 1k vis satellite:

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Running the animated version also allows a visual of which way the smoke is moving. Today the Aspen fire smoke appears to just be about the local San Joaquin River canyon areas. Likewise smoke from the fires up in Oregon are not moving south at all. It looks like much of the Sierra will be fine this weekend. I'm likely to be up in the Ebbetts area doing some closeup wildflower work playing with a new RF controlled remote shutter release on my G10.
It was a bit wider spread than that... I was looking at the cam facing Humphreys, Basin, and Tom from Bishop today and they went from totally obscured to merely mostly obscured. Maybe the low-lying stuff wasn't showing up on the sat image as well. Hopefully better this weekend with the pattern change and the wind mixing it out.

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