Yesterday, Friday, I reported on FB that the Soberanes Fire had kicked up a bit on the interior portion. I could see the smoke from my place – no column, but smoke. So today’s inciweb reports this:
“A flare up occurred yesterday on the fire near Marble Peak, but was well within the burn perimeter. Today, a Hot Shot crew will make their way through the burned area to reach the hot spot to cool it down. Smoke might be visible from nearby communities, but rest assured that this hot spot is well within the burned area.
Efforts to remove the water tender yesterday were unsuccessful, towing equipment wasn’t capable and other equipment wasn’t available. Diesel fuel was successfully extracted from the fuel tanks, and nearby brush was cut back to allow easier extraction of the vehicle. Plans are put in place to remove the water tender when equipment becomes available.
Hot spots along the North Fork Big Sur Creek, north of Ventana Cone, and east of Church Ranch are trouble spots for fire managers. These areas are not accessible to firefighters on the ground due to steep and rocky terrain. It is not likely that fire will spread out of these areas due to a lack of continuous fuel bed, cooler overnight temperatures, and higher overnight humidities. Winds could be a problem if a hot spot were to reach a containment line, fire managers will continue to monitor conditions.”
Containment is still at 98% on Day 79.
Sigh. We are still dealing with controlled traffic – USFS parked on the North Coast Ridge Rd, which means we few residents need to time our arrivals and departures with engines, equipment, crews, water tenders, etc. driving up each morn and coming down the road each evening. It’s been this way for months. Always seems to be they are opposite my schedule – lines of trucks headed up and south, just when I need to drive down to the highway, or, when I want to go home, I have to wait and time it till they are done driving down the road before I can head up. So I leave early and come home late. I am so tired of leaving home at 6:30am and not getting back till after 7pm. Everyone is very polite and helpful. I’m just so over it. Not to mention the road dust coating the inside and outside of our home….. But we’ve done this before, it too shall pass… Okay. Thanks for letting me whine. Happy to have a home, after all.
Happy to let you whine, since you do it so rarely, Soaring. And we are now on Day 79, I figure.
bigsurkate
Soaring, Officer Matsu and I are sending you a million hugs. It will be over soon
Hello Kate and everyone,
I wanted to follow up on the weather pattern change i spoke of a couple weeks ago and what i am seeing is on track and bit scary to be honest! The first in a series of post tropical atmospheric river storms are lining up to hammer California starting Thursday night (10/13) with very high pwats or precipitable water vapor levels. This first storm is aiming directly at Eureka/ Southern Oregon but a small shift could bring it more south to around us but we should still get a good soaking regardless. A secondary storm is looking to follow the Thursday night/Friday morning storm on Saturday night and appears to have even stronger dynamics to support heavy-tropical in nature- rains. Remember this huge low has already swallowed up a super typhoon (Chaba) that is circulating around in its airmass and is tapping into a stream of very warm moist air off the China sea around tropical storm Aere that is sitting almost quasi stationary feeding the huge Aleution low that is supportive of these storms. This is not good news at all for sensitive burn scars and very well could be a disasterous Winter for mudslides/rockslides and massive amounts of sedimentation inundating all our watersheds. Lastly the pattern is looking very progressive in nature and i am not seeing much of an indian summer if any and looks at the moment we are in for a long wet flooding winter!! This is the time to prepare!!!!….and be extremely safe and cautious this winter, its going to be a dangerous one!!!!
cheers to drought being done for good!
Paul H
Yes, Paul … I have been watching that storm, as well, as we have a trip planned to Ashland, OR starting on Thursday afternoon, arriving in Ashland on Saturday. In addition to what you mentioned, snow predictions are ramping up as well. Does not bode well for our trip.
bigsurkate
“Without human-made climate change, U.S. forest fires would be half the size”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/climate-change-wildfires/