The most important thing for today is to strengthen containment lines and extinguish lingering hotspots. Arduous work in steep terrain. Success today and into Tuesday may mean that skies will clear and we have a good chance of no fire spread during the coming wind event. If so, the worst we might have ahead is ash clouds kicked up by the wind, and a massive slope remediation project to avert flooding when the rains hopefully arrive.
622 AM PST Mon Dec 18 2017 .SYNOPSIS... Gusty northeast winds across portions of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties will diminish this morning, then tranquil weather is expected through Tuesday. High temperatures will be near to slightly above normal through Tuesday. It will be chilly tonight. An upper trough passing to the north of the region may bring some showers to northern areas and the mountains Wednesday. Gusty north winds are expected late Wednesday into Wednesday night, followed by gusty northeast winds Thursday. Offshore flow will continue into the weekend. && .SHORT TERM...(TDY-WED) With the exception of some high clouds streaming into the region from the northeast, skies were clear across the forecast area early this morning. Today should be a mostly sunny day. Gusty northeast winds continued to affect much of Ventura County, the mountains of Los Angeles County including the Santa Monica Range and the Santa Clarita Valley. A wind advisory remains in effect in these areas through mid morning, but winds will be in the low end of the advisory range, and nothing like the winds observed on Sunday. Winds should diminish below advisory levels in most areas by mid morning. After a chilly morning, with areas of frost on the Central Coast and freezing temps in the Santa Ynez and Cuyama Valleys, it should warm nicely in most areas today. Max temps should be 5-10 degrees higher than those on Sunday in the mtns, deserts, and interior valleys, and a few degrees higher than those on Sunday elsewhere. The exception will be across portions of the coastal plain, mainly near the coast, where max temps should be about the same. The upper ridge building across the region today will flatten out tonight and Tuesday as an upper low approaches the Pacific northwest. With clear skies, light winds, and continued very dry conditions, tonight will again be rather chilly and frost advisories may be needed for the Central Coast and possibly the Ojai Valley. Freezing conds are possible in the Santa Ynez Valley. Do not expect any low clouds tonight as gradients will remain weakly offshore. Pressure gradients turn onshore Tuesday afternoon and heights/thicknesses begin to fall. Expect a few degrees of cooling in all areas west of the mtns on Tue, with little change or possibly slightly warming in the mtns and deserts as 850 mb temps rise a bit. The upper low will move into the Pac NW Tue night, then drop into the Great Basin on Wed with the trough axis extending south southwestward into forecast area. Expect low clouds to develop on the Central Coast and across coastal sections of L.A. and VTU Counties Tue night, possibly pushing into some valley locations. The southern end of a surface front associated with the trough could bring some showers to areas north of Point Conception Wednesday into Wed evening, and possibly to the northern slopes of the mtns of VTU County and northwestern L.A. County Wed afternoon and evening. Skies will be partly cloudy elsewhere. There will be several degrees of cooling in all areas Wed. Gusty northwest to north winds are expected to develop across much of SBA and SLO Counties and through the Interstate 5 Corridor during Wed afternoon.
using the reservoir as a dip site
spent some time hiking the new firebreaks
some of the dozer paths are incredibly steep.
Now that things are relatively calm I've been rummaging the CalFire site, and see their home page has links to helpful info including one titled "Returning Home After A Wildfire" (click to download PDF). Their Fire Map page has some great current and historical stuff too, though it's a little resource and data intensive if you have limited internet or computer resources. I noticed during the fire that the other major government fire site named InciWeb seemed to play leapfrog with CalFire with the latest info and they each have different stuff so I check them both.
Meanwhile, this 1:30pm GOES IR sat (brightness unchanged) showed another hotspot in Ventura County. Maybe controlled "back burn" in preparation for the coming wind event?
USAF Reaper drone that has been mapping hot spots