CA-STF-September Lightning Complex 2023

[apx8000]

State ID:CA
3 letter designator: STF
Fire name: 6 Fires, in degrees decimal unless noted different, all under 1 acre
#1 fire Granite Fire, 37.868972, 119.930694
#2 fire Rain Fire, 37.819997, 120.012609
#3 fire Jordan IC engine at scene, 10x10 ground fire, 37 47.58 and 120 6.47 (DMS)
#4 unnamed at 37 47.80 and 120 6.36 (DMS), from AA440
#5 unnamed at 37 48.83 and 120 3.47, (DMS) from AA440, near Buck Meadows
#6 unnamed near Mt. Elizabeth, spotted by lookout
Some may turn out as duplicates

Location: Buck Meadow to Groveland along hwy 120
Reported acres: all under 1 acre
Rate of spread:slow
Report on Conditions: ground fires in light to heavy fuels, from two of the fires
Structure threat: unknown
Resources: STF ground and 4 copters
Hazards:
Weather: cloudy with active lighting.
Radio channels: STF ops 170.500, A/G 24
Scanner link: CalFire TCU, Stanislaus National Forest Live Audio Feed
Webcam link: ALERTCalifornia - Duckwall 1, zoomed in on two fires
Agency Website:

[RemotelyLocated]

Scanner link CalFire TCU, Stanislaus National Forest Live Audio Feed

[apx8000]

AA 440 and AA17V are working together on these fires and are reporting 4 additional fires:

#7 = 37 47.51 -119 54.38, Pilot Peak off forest road S230

#8 = 37 51.80 -119 56.27, 40 x 40 active ground fire, Preston Falls off forest road 1S26

#9 = I missed it as a single tree, in the YNP Park

#10 = Grant Ridge and Calpine Rd, Columbia, This maybe Granite Ridge

AA440 requesting 2 tankers

Fire showing from this cam as well: ALERTCalifornia - Cedar Ridge

[trishaswcfirewx]

YNP has 7 fires total: Biledo, Marmut, Jan, Fisher, Aspen, Ackerson, Summit. Biledo will be IA. Ackerson has Copter 551 working it.

(There’s also a Summit Fire in Sierra NF up by Inyo)

[trishaswcfirewx]

18 incidents on the Stanislaus. pretty much everyone in Tuolumne County is without power… 55k I’d estimate.
mine was in the first wave to go out at @3:30. was estimated time of restoration of 9pm… that didn’t happen. just took a drive around and didn’t see any
PG&E trucks but saw several fire trucks staged in various places.

Still rumbling and a tumbling up here.

[CDFF85]

Power just came back down here across from Standard Road on Blue Bell about an hour ago…clear skies above but still seeing flashes and hearing rumbles East up 108 headed your way! Hope you get power back soon, Tuolumne County sure got hammered this afternoon…

[apx8000]

Last night several of the fires were quickly contained and the crews moved on to another fire. This morning engine and patrol crews are returning to some of those quickly worked on to check for mop up needs. A few were staffed and worked all night. I lost track of which were contained and which still required containment lines built and mopped up.

[trishaswcfirewx]

from my best guess we had lightning for @12 hours! I’ve never experienced that before in my 30+ years living in the Motherlode. still no power up here. now it says estimated time of restoration to be announced. we’re getting ready to move but I knew better than to pack up my power outage stuff… lol. will be interesting to see how many fires they discover over the next few days. yesterday every time AA440 turned his head he saw another one it seemed like. incredible work by all the firefighters, air and ground! I guess I should get my scanner going. between MMU and TCU yesterday we were chasing fires from about 9 in the morning til I went to bed.

[ffviking]

Saw J76 coming from Redding with a load of jumpers circling the Clavey River /God’s Bath area yesterday afternoon. Yup, still outages all over Tuolumne County ours came on at 0130. Rain gauge had 3/8 in it this morning. Two good wetting rains yesterday at our house in Sonora. Under the tree canopy is wet this morning. That storm came out of nowhere and put on a good show. Lucky we got a little precipitation with it, things would of been a mess for a couple of days. AA will be up after the sun on the fuels for a couple hours doing recon. We have had a some good wetting rains in the last two months. Over an inch at the house, some areas over two inches.

On a side note…last week found a tarantula on the driveway and one on the back patio. Some of my old captains would say Fire season done when they come out. We will see!

[apx8000]

Air resources on the complex using:

166.6125 for A/G

The duckwall mtn. cam went off at 19:41 yesterday.

[trishaswcfirewx]

AA440 headed up now.
Couple of new incidents this morning
Lewis near Mt Lewis 1/10th acre smoldering creeping
Kerns
so far everything else they’ve discussed stayed in their footprints last night.

[E3181Tem]

T82 and T83 are now up working too.

[Chaparral]

They are going to the fire in Valley Springs

[ffviking]

A little prospective of the lightning yesterday and last night. My buddy got this off the NWS out of Sac.

[ffviking]

STF has another strike with 30x30 ground fire. Near the South Fork of the Stan. North of Mt Elizabeth. Best access is Keltz Mine Rd, Cedar Ridge area. AT-83 and 89 making drops on it. Keltz Fire. AA(Keltz) is making a few more drops on it keeping it in check until ground units get on seen. That area should be brush and timber. AA said it’s on the upper third of the slope. Retardant all around the fire and AA going to stay on scene for awhile longer. AT are released off the fire.

[matthew3474]

STF has been trying to make access since yesterday I believe. Some fires on the STF YNP boundary as well.

[ffviking]

Copy, most of the county was in the dark yesterday with no power or cell until early this morning and this afternoon. That storm raised all kinds of havoc with the power grid.

[trishaswcfirewx]

bar, Lewis and Kerns contained

[E3181Tem]

Fantastic news @trishaswcfirewx Good stops by the crews!

[Backpacker]

Wow, that was the biggest lightning storm I’ve been in since 8/16/2020. I was up around 9000 feet working my way to Matterhorn Peak above Bridgeport. Friday was bluebird. Saturday started gloomy and got real wet quickly. I set up my tent and dozed. Summer thunderstorms usually pass fairly quickly but this went on for hours. In the evening my little AM radio was crackling like mad.

Headed home early Sunday, feeling a little sheepish as the weather was nice as I went down. But then… near the top of Sonora Pass around 4:30 PM, hail like I’ve never seen it before, water and rocks washing all over the road, crazy.

Kinda kicking myself for not seeing this storm coming but that’s the way weather goes sometimes. And glad to hear it didn’t spark too many fires.