Wanted to make a thread on the alertwildfire webcam network, which is ever expanding.
“The plan, according to Kent, is to add 300 cameras every year and have around 1,000 cameras by 2021 or 2022.”
New cam views I have noticed this week:
Weir Canyon (Orange County)
Green Peak (LA County)
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Tassajara Peak (San Luis Obispo County)
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Now if we can just get an app for viewing. Tried looking for an iOS app with no success, as the site crashes frequently on iOS Safari
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They are a pretty incredible resource. I have been enjoying watching time lapses of thunderstorm buildups on the Butt Lake, Hamilton Mtn, and Dyer Mtn cams - kind of a nifty way to callibrate my eyeballs for how far away the clouds are that can see from my kitchen window in Chico.
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App in iOS would be a welcomed addition.
Works well for me using Firefox.
Sure wish they would add a “Regions” button/menu (like top-left of each page) to the bottom of each view page. This would alleviate scrolling back to the top to select another region 
Having spent several seasons in a fire lookout, it feels like old times…
Happy 4th all!
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Hopefully they get some cameras up in Modoc county soon. Is there anywhere to see where scheduled sites are?
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New cameras appearing on the Central coast such as Mount Helen
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Just wanted to throw this out there. The fire cameras are a great tool. Eyes in the sky so to speak. They can find smoke during the day and even fire at night thru near infrared technology. They can confirm that, yep, there has been a fire dispatched and there may or may not be ‘smoke showing’ (a discussion in itself). You can interpret the column for heat, type of fuel and spread.
But…
On several occasions this year, including the Dam fire yesterday, interpreters saw it as another Station fire or you are going to need a bigger box.
All we have as camera watchers is the column and for some, knowledge of the area. With that being said, we have to be careful with hysteria or criticism of the firefighters on the ground and in the air. Something happened with the hellacious looking Dam fire yesterday, either it was a hell of a firefighting effort or it ran out of fuel.
So enjoy the cameras but remember, they aren’t always portraying what’s happening on the fire ground.
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Yep
Like the old saying “100 acres of smoke but only 5 acres of fire”
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Even the cameras are guilty of night acres.
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You learn early to estimate your acres at night and divide by 4 or 5. Chances are you will be pretty darn close when the sun comes up!
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One factor with the cameras as well, is how tight the operator has the camera zoomed in. Acreage will look substantially more the tighter the zoom.
In fairness, the cameras can be a good indicator of wind direction, fire direction of travel, etc but should never be used as the definitive factor on what the fire is doing. The boots on the ground: IC, Operations, Divisions along with the AA are the far better judges of those key elements of size, intensity, ROS, potential, etc. than a camera or even media streams will ever provide.
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A904G, I was the one “interpreter” who made a passing comment about the Station Fire related to this one - not because of the size of this one, but because it was under similar circumstances that the Station started. ANF was busy in the San Gabe canyon on a working fire when the Station popped on the Crest. My comment was merely, here we are, end of July, Hwy 39 is burning, heat advisory in effect, hope another front country fire does not pop now - the feeling was one of deja vu all over again. My comment in the Dam Q&D was not about the size of the fire. No offense intended, just clarifying.
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I’ve been guilty of ‘webcam hysteria’ on this site. You’re right, it’s easy to get overly excited. It’s also a testament to just how mighty our IA firefighting is, here in California.
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amen brother. a lot to be said about last few fires. great job by feet on the ground’ and air. continue on.
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First Captain years ago always said, take what you think it is and cut it in half. At night, cut it in half again. Your divide by 4 or 5 matches that pretty well 
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