Big time inversion over the Fire still. Entire area is totally smoked in!
Extrication is now taking place.
Thanks for the update. Will the fire impact the extrication today?
Smoke was affecting visibility for helicopter use.
XSA sending 2 T3 st
OES 4804C
XSA 4152C
No tankers have been flying for the last few hours.
AA is ordering 6 tankers, prefer they VLAT’s or LAT’s will accept S-2’s.
This order is for structure protection.
Turtleback dome camera 2 is back online.
https://rockyags.cr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/camHist_movie.pl?camera=turtleback_2&visible=false&date=20180716&frame=160
N40Y is over the fire on their IR mapping mission.
https://www.flightradar24.com/N40Y/1d27d35c
edit: Looks like they’re flying a 10 mile square. I hope the fire is well under 1/4 of that.
Listening to AA51’s report to ops from the IR flight. Biggest growth was on the east side of the fire in the South Fork River Drainage, in the Peachtree Bar area, 1000 plus acres of growth there alone. Did not hear all of the report, there was growth in other areas but not in as large of numbers.
There is talk of doing some burning ops tonight.
Quick update on the extrication and procession of HFEO Varney. He was successfully extricated early this afternoon and brought out of the fire zone where the family was waiting with the procession. The drive to the ME’s office was long but was lined with thousands of residents, LEO’s and of course fire departments from the entire area. It was an emotional drive for all but well worth it to get him where he needed to be.
N149Z is over the fire on a heading of 270. If they make a right turn, they’ll be in mapping mode over the fire, and we’ll have 2 sets of IR flights to work from.
NIROPS 20180716_2259MDT_Ferguson
Visibility is near 0.
Type 1 Team ordered. Kurth - CIIMT4.
AA is bringing in some Tankers before dark. I assume the Inversion finally lifted enough.
Pretty surprised. I left jerseydale about an hour ago and it was still socked in to where you couldn’t see the ridge lines. And looking east from Merced it’s extremely smoky with no visible column
Definitely a header building showing on the satellite.
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/wfo/hnx/h5-loop-vis.html