Here are some preliminary fire severity images for the Washburn Fire. Across the majority of the burned area, the fire spread slowly downhill or across the slope, reducing fire intensity. Green areas have intact foliage. Many green trees may die from radiant heat or cooked roots.
The fire barely spread into Mariposa Grove, shown in yellow. White outlines are areas previous burned with prescribed fire. Red areas had high-severity fire, green shows intact tree canopy.
A few strong thunderstorms are possible in the Sierra Nevada, mainly along the crest, from 12 PM PDT this afternoon until 7 PM PDT this evening. Dangerous cloud to ground lightning strikes, wind gusts near 45 mph, and small hail are some hazards associated with strong thunderstorms. In addition, any thunderstorm can produce intense rainfall rates, leading to localized flooding.
More on Jan van Wagtendonk.
Godspeed
Evacuations explain a couple of questions. One, why retardant was not used initially and two, why air attack command did not have the tankers use water instead.
Thanks for the explanation. We don’t want unknown aircraft over an incident without the proper communications with the incident ECC and other aircraft in the area. I believe folks need to cool their jets with this issue.
— Edit—
Thinking out loud on here. My bad.
I actually support the plan. It seemed like they did a great job on the ground and their management policies had reduced fuel that the fire ran into. All wins!
Geeze there sure was a lot of doubt casted while this incident went on. “This will be the next Dixie fire, Iron Creek will never hold, They are lucky there are no other incidents competing for helicopters, ect.” Big shout out to the team for making a great plan, and the fire fighters that executed it. Especially the Hotshot crew’s that turned the nasty corner in Div U and W. What did you guys think was gunna happen when you throw 20+ Hotshot Crews at it!
I’m grateful there were no serious injuries or worse, no homes lost, the Grove survived and so did our history.
You can almost tell it’s been… dare I say… Slow?
Or better yet, kinda normal pre-2015 ish fire season…
… FD’s been good at stopping them so far this season. Cheers
2019 season…
Guilty as charged.
Now you gone and done it.
Yesterday evening was the first time since fire started that the small amount of smoke generated was actually drifting anything but North. I thought it would’ve grabbed more attention
I was wondering when someone was gonna say something… 
The prevailing winds will be out of the west-southwest
A very persistent warm and dry weather pattern continues to support the potential of active-to-very active fire behavior today. Primary area of fire behavior focus includes the S. Fk. Merced River upstream to the Iron Cr. and Johnson Cr. areas where most of the current activity is occurring.
24 hours: Continuation of warm/dry weather will produce the potential for active fire behavior during the period, with the burning conditions extending into the evening due to poor relative humidity recovery on higher terrain. Generally light winds will produce pockets of isolated backing on slopes with flanking, and isolated torching within the control lines. Southwesterly ridgetop winds will provide clear sky and good ventilation. Continued potential for spotting north of the South Fork Merced River in the Johnson Creek area, and across Iron Cr. to the east as the fire consumes residual fuels near the containment lines.
I’ll have to politely disagree with this statement. I feel that injuries are worse than losing homes.
