High Sierra Topix

With Labor Day holiday weekend approaching and long range weather and fire conditions forecasts firming up, members considering getting out over the holiday might find it useful to look at our fire and smoke conditions thread on below link as has been the case this last decade each August, once again it is likely there will be smoky hazy air clarity in many central and southern Sierra mountain locations and especially on the east side.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=14477&p=111609#p111609

SSSdave wrote:With Labor Day holiday weekend approaching and long range weather and fire conditions forecasts firming up, members considering getting out over the holiday might find it useful to look at our fire and smoke conditions thread on below link as has been the case this last decade each August, once again it is likely there will be smoky hazy air clarity in many central and southern Sierra mountain locations and especially on the east side.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=14477&p=111609#p111609

David,
Thanks for the summary and links in that other thread. It saved me a bit of research.

I've just accepted that my annual LD weekend getaway will involve smoke.

PS - how many was your permit for on friday? Do you know if they are transferable(if you're canceling your Dusy plans as you mentioned in the other thread)?

rayfound wrote:I've just accepted that my annual LD weekend getaway will involve smoke.

PS - how many was your permit for on friday? Do you know if they are transferable(if you're canceling your Dusy plans as you mentioned in the other thread)?

PM sent.

Anything beats last year.

This was on the bypass trail in Evolution Meadow taken around 3 or 4 PM.

Just flew over the Sierra, and can confirm... A lot of smoke and haze, but none particularly dense like last year.

A few random links:

Smoke forecast: http://viewer.smoke.airfire.org/run/sta ... m/current/

Daily satellite image: http://goo.gl/fRPF3T (this is a shorter version of https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov that centers on California)
(Note: This doesn't automatically update to the latest day, so you need to do this at the bottom.)

Inciweb fire status for California: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/5/

hey all,
i'm a bit confused - are many people exiting the sierra reporting smoke?

recent satellite images look quite clear:
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p ... 5791015625

i'm planning to be in the north lake/south lake area from 9/1-9/7, so curious what you're seeing that i'm not.

A trough of low pressure is forecast to be over California over the holiday. Sierra trekkers may want to be more focused on staying warm in the alpine zone and less so on the smoke.

Spent the weekend of August 27-28 up at Lake Tahoe area. Lots of smoky haze everywhere. We hiked to the top of Mount Rose (NE corner) on Saturday and could barely see the lake! The Sierra crest was completely obscured - that's about 20 air miles away. Only moderately clear view was down to Reno! On Sunday we went over to Carson Pass and hiked south to Round Top Lake. Sunday was a bit better, but still quite hazy. Close up views, for example, of Round Top from the lake, were fine, but ridges 2 or 3 miles away were getting hazy. I'm assuming all the smoke was due to southwest winds transporting from the big central coast, southern california, and Sequoia forest fires. Unfortunately, southwest winds are forecast for the Sierra for the entire rest of the week.

I think the satellite photos look clear because the smoke layer is very diffuse - not a definite trail - and is not that thick - maybe only a couple thousand feet above the surface? We did notice on Mount Rose on Saturday that we seemed to be above most of the smoke - but everything we wanted to look at was in it! Looking straight down from space, a few thousand foot thickness of diffuse smoke is a thin layer. But where you are in it, looking out for distant views means looking through miles and miles of smoky haze.

-Phil