High Sierra Topix

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4456/
Fire containment continues to be held at 25%. Heavy concentrations of smoke is expected for the next two days, this will be impacting many areas to the northeast. Even the Mammoth area will be slidiing in and out of the "Unhealthy for Senetive Groups" category from the "Moderate" category, during the hours of 10am-2pm for the next 2 days.

Thanks everybody. Please keep us updated.

Heading out a week from Monday. Thinking Tuolumne Meadows should be OK? Versus original plan of Bishop Pass to Taboose Pass, or Plan B Rock Creek to Lake Mary...

Spent today day hiking from Alta Peak through the tablelands and out via the Lakes Trail. The drive up was smoky, but I only got one or two faint whiffs while hiking.

8/31 - 9/6 Ritter Range & Minarets Area

All I can say is the sky gods were smiling on us - it was hazy on Monday 8/31 when we hiked in on the PCT to 1000 Island L and even hazier yesterday, 9/6, hiking out from Ediza to Agnew Meadow, but in between we had stiff, sometimes cold winds from the west and southwest and classic, cobalt blue Sierra skies. Most nights I woke up at some point and saw and smelled smoke but it was always gone by the morning. We camped at 1000 Island, Garnet, and Ediza and did a lot of XC exploring. Mammoth was very smoky yesterday and we worried Bishop, where we'd reserved a room, would be worse but it was much better than Mammoth. Today driving home to the Bay Area we couldn't see the mountains at all until over Conway Summit. Up to Sonora pass on the east side completely clear but very hazy on the west side. My feeling is Mammoth and north you'll have a better chance of having at least some good days, and even at its worst the effects are more visual - I didn't actually smell smoke that often.

Nora

Below is a link for an online map showing the Rough fire east of Fresno.

The map displays (1) the Google aerial, (2) fire hotspots from satellite sensors and (3) the most recently posted fire perimeter. Each time the map opens, the most recent data hosted on the federal GIS (Geographical Information System) servers is displayed.

Click on a crosshatch area and you will see a popup with the number of acres burned and date that info was posted to the federal GeoMAC server. (The Inciweb maps get perimeter data from this same server.) That popup used to show “percent contained” but that information has been deleted from the data the public can see on the GeoMAC server.
About GeoMAC: http://www.geomac.gov/about.shtml

The circles and red dots are heat sources sensed by satellite. This is the MODIS data. There is not always actual fire at those spots. For example, maybe the satellite sensed a real hot smoke plume that drifted away from the fire. A heavy damp overcast can also confuse the sensors. In addition, this technology cannot sense fires that are small and/or not sufficiently hot.
About MODIS: http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapro ... /MOD14.php

To see the map legend, learn how to turn data layers on/off, see how to create your own custom map link and get other tips for using the map, click “About this map” in the upper left corner of the map. Other data layers include wind forecasts for roughly 6 hours from when you open the map.

Online fire Map: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... fire_3.txt

The map is displayed by Gmap4. I am the developer of this enhanced Google map viewer. This project is a public service and part of my way to “pay it forward”.

Joseph, the Gmap4 guy

Humphrey's Basin Smoke Report - Labor Day Weekend.

Smoke was present on and off, depending on wind. Did appear to settle a bit more into the canyon, we stayed above 11,000ft.

It impacted views and photos, but never had any impact/irritation on eyes/throat/lungs.

Tenaya Fire, Yosemite Valley North Rim, 100 acres:

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/art ... 13210.html

Looking up Indian Canyon from Yosemite Valley this afternoon:

Butte Fire. Started Sept. 9, 2015. Sadly going strong. 2,000 acres at 20% contained it says at the CA gov site. Also says:

Fire is expanding in all directions. Steep river drainages, high heat, low humidity, and volatile dry grassy oak woodland promote dangerous fire behavior and challenging terrain for firefighters.

Probably will smokify Emigrant Wilderness...

Sigh.

And an update from 4 hours later (6:30 PM today) says 14,000 acres at 10% contained. A bad day for them...

Fire behavior remained extreme throughout the day with rapid, uncontrolled fire growth. Suppression efforts had minimal impacts due to a high focus on structure defense. Mandatory evacuations are in place and expanded throughout the day as the fire perimeter grew. Evacuation warnings have been issued for additional threatened areas. More evacuations are anticipated as the fire behavior continues to impact additional areas. Continued hot and dry weather conditions will also limit nighttime recovery.

Here is the same online fire map I posted previously, but centered on the Butte fire.

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... fire_3.txt