Fire Friday

[SBitz]

I'm starting this new Topic on the Thomas Fire for today, Friday 12/8. For prior stuff, see the other Topics below. I've also just now posted some "small" (~250k size each) homemade MP4 file animations in a separate Topic, asking for your feedback on whether you can watch them and whether you want to.

Anyway, from the quick look I took half an hour ago things look much the same, with the main fire(s) well away from SB County and smaller than yesterday though larger than overnight. The strange color of the sky seems related to the wind change.  More to follow....

[SBitz]

Here's the composite view of the fire, showing how it's probably inched across the SB County line near Rincon. These detections could be quite old, and they're low resolution so I'll be looking at other resources to share. I also looks like the fire's starting to inch downhill across the ridge.  More to follow...

[SBitz]

Here are GOES vis and IR sat views from 2pm. Vis isn't very good at showing smoke thickness, but gives you a general idea.


IR looks pretty hot on the North edge. That would account for a lot of smoke.


Here's the smoke analysis. So much better! Not so good around here at the moment tho. :/

[SBitz]

Here's how it actually looks from Broadcast Peak to the East right now.

[SBitz]

Great news on the Northern Front! Air attack has finally gone full bore. Here's an aerial view of the 747 jumbo jet doing a drop at 2:08pm.

Other assorted fixed wing aircraft have joined the choppers too, and they're going at it hammer and tongs. Hurrah for air support! :D

[SBitz]

The cautious evac warning from last night was a fairly large file and not easy to read, so I've tweaked at it and gotten it down to 0.452MB file size. The colors are icky now, but if you live in that area at least you might be able to read street and topo landmark names. It took a bit of work, but hopefully may be helpful for anyone with limited or slow net access. If you don't have resources to download it, in essence you want to move toward the West away from any open flames. If smoke is heavy, don't be breathing it with anything less than a full fire respirator mask that has replaceable filters.

[SBitz]

A C-130 is up there at the moment (green track).

[Anna7cam]

Thank you for these - somehow these circled colored bits bring in to
focus how it's not one big "Fire" but instead lots of little individual
"fires" - thus how some houses burn and others are spared!

> ridge.  More to follow...
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[SBitz]

Fire's quiet again tonight, according to this 8pm low-res InfraRed satellite view.

[SBitz]

Today our smoke was spread along the coast from San Francisco to TJ as you can see in this daytime color sat view. I've pumped the color a bit in the hope it helps you distinguish smoke from clouds beyond our shore where it's pretty easy.

[SBitz]

Back here in the present, the view East from Broadcast Peak is reassuring with the city lights clearer than we've seen for so long. Looks like moon glow over a thin smoke layer with no sign of fire glow even though I've pumped up the brightness and color some.


AQI is better too, though still 10 points beyond the SBCAPCD 150 range Unhealthy for SB for the smallest particles that aren't fully captured by most masks.

[SBitz]

On the CalFire website is this 7:30pm update:
Last Updated:

	December 08, 2017 7:30 pm
Date/Time Started:	December 04, 2017 6:28 pm
Administrative Unit:	Unified Command: CAL FIRE, Ventura County Fire, City of Ventura, Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County Sheriff,
County:	Ventura County
Location:	Hwy 150 and Hwy 126, north of Santa Paula
Acres Burned - Containment:	143,000 acres - 10% contained
Structures Threatened:	15,000 structures threatened
Structures Destroyed:	476 Structures Destroyed, 108 Structures Damaged

...
Conditions: The fire continues to threaten structures in various parts of the cities of Ventura, Ojai, Casitas Springs, Santa Paula, Carpinteria, Fillmore and the unincorporated areas of Ventura County and Matilija Canyon. The fire is expected to spread towards Santa Barbara County, Sespe Wilderness and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. A Red Flag Warning will remain in effect for the area. Mop-up continues in impacted city areas to support repopulation efforts. Firefighters continue to work aggressively to protect life and property while working on control efforts around the fire perimeter. ...

They've also issued an evac update for Ventura County called the 12/8/2017 4:00 PM - Thomas Fire Repopulation Release (click for PDF).

[SBitz]

SB County fire has this Thomas Fire website with info including the following:

UPDATED 12/8/17 8:30 p.m. - THOMAS FIRE UPDATE

The Thomas Fire continues to burn actively, spreading moderately to the north and moving at a slow rate of speed in a westward direction.

The Thomas Fire has impacted Santa Barbara County with intermittent power outages, unhealthful air quality, individuals evacuated from Ventura County coming to Santa Barbara County, and evacuations for parts of Carpinteria. Evacuation warnings and orders have been issued for portions of Santa Barbara County. 

Santa Barbara County's objective is to keep the fire south of Highway 150 and east of Highway 101. 

Fire Status:

• 143,000 acres burned
• 10% containment
• Total incident personnel: 3,528

[SBitz]

I've inadvertently made what's probably my last post for tonight, into the Wind topic here. It's the last post there of course, and includes a map of all IR satellite fire detections between about 3pm and 9pm. I didn't want to re-post it here in case anyone with limited internet would get it twice. The takeaway from it is that the fire is well to the East of the SB County line during this time period.

Since I'm posting again though, here's the latest low-res IR sat showing only one low intensity fire detection. Smouldering smokers won't show of course, though they'll torment our tireless firefighters and aggravate asthmatics all night, and some coals may spring back to open flame tomorrow.

That hotspot may be what's glowing (in white oval) in this more light sensitive monochrome camera looking East from Broadcast Peak.