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John
Jul 12, 2017, 8:04:28 PM7/12/17
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I thought there might be nothing much new about the fire today, and this list would go dormant in favor of websites like Edhat and our excellent local journalists. Then I took a look at the remote cameras up on the ridge, and thought these might be of interest. Looking toward the North it's encouraging to see so little smoke!
Side note 1: This time I'm only using "Attach" to add images here in the web interface for this SBitZ.NET post, to eliminate the duplicate attachments I saw from both attaching files and inserting them into the text yesterday. Let me know if/how this works for you, and I'll try to use the most convenient method for everyone.
Side note 2: If you're one of the rare breed like me who "cut the cord" (cable users can skip these two notes) and watches TV via antenna (and internet streaming) you'll have noticed that 3, 6, 50 and other channels are back. This is thanks to the work of the people you can see in the North pic.
Side note 3: I've also heard from another "antenna" guy that KOCE (50) is in the process of upgrading their "feed" to the local re-transmitting tower there. When completed this may lead to more reliable PBS via antenna here. Hope springs eternal that we may yet see something approaching the reliability we had when KCET was the local PBS provider. [end of Antenna Guy stuff]
In the East & South views you can see somewhat that the smoke is less there too, though the PhosCheck still blocks much of the view. (maybe one of the antenna guys will climb up and clean the lenses for us?)
Looking to the West we can still see where most of the smoke seems to be coming from, and some idea why we saw the Salvar Bridge helicopters flying again briefly this afternoon. This time they were going far to the West. I wonder if they might move the staging area closer to that end if there's concern about another flare up there.
I haven't monitored air traffic, but the spot fires on the Northwest side are probably still being attacked by the smaller helicopters flying out of Santa Ynez since the TFR & temporary control tower are still in place to protect pilots there. Speaking of KIZA (airport), as of 4:40 they're reporting wind from 250 degrees (WSW - due West is 270) at 13mph, gusting to 16mph and a toasty 80F. Not the best firefighting conditions in general, but it might help slow hotspots on the West end if they're blown back toward already burned areas. Three PWS stations reporting along W. Camino Cielo (atop the ridge in the fire area) are showing similar temperatures but the winds are less. Strongest ridge wind is 5-10mph reported just opposite the East end of Cachuma, swinging from the NE to SE, which could be blowing any embers onto un-burned areas. As I type this, helicopters are filling up at Salvar Bridge again. The other two PWS nearing 154 are pretty steadily about 5mph from SW & SE.
Here's a 10MB InciWeb "Operations Map of the Whittier Fire" by the "Day Shift" linked from their Whittier page:
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5339/
For speed and ease I'm attaching a smaller 200kb screencap of it.
Update 6:45pm:
I've also attached recent pix from 154@Foothill showing the main smoke plume, and a maximum zoom pic of a small white plume you can see at the far West (left) of the main plume pic.
Side note 1: This time I'm only using "Attach" to add images here in the web interface for this SBitZ.NET post, to eliminate the duplicate attachments I saw from both attaching files and inserting them into the text yesterday. Let me know if/how this works for you, and I'll try to use the most convenient method for everyone.
Side note 2: If you're one of the rare breed like me who "cut the cord" (cable users can skip these two notes) and watches TV via antenna (and internet streaming) you'll have noticed that 3, 6, 50 and other channels are back. This is thanks to the work of the people you can see in the North pic.
Side note 3: I've also heard from another "antenna" guy that KOCE (50) is in the process of upgrading their "feed" to the local re-transmitting tower there. When completed this may lead to more reliable PBS via antenna here. Hope springs eternal that we may yet see something approaching the reliability we had when KCET was the local PBS provider. [end of Antenna Guy stuff]
In the East & South views you can see somewhat that the smoke is less there too, though the PhosCheck still blocks much of the view. (maybe one of the antenna guys will climb up and clean the lenses for us?)
Looking to the West we can still see where most of the smoke seems to be coming from, and some idea why we saw the Salvar Bridge helicopters flying again briefly this afternoon. This time they were going far to the West. I wonder if they might move the staging area closer to that end if there's concern about another flare up there.
I haven't monitored air traffic, but the spot fires on the Northwest side are probably still being attacked by the smaller helicopters flying out of Santa Ynez since the TFR & temporary control tower are still in place to protect pilots there. Speaking of KIZA (airport), as of 4:40 they're reporting wind from 250 degrees (WSW - due West is 270) at 13mph, gusting to 16mph and a toasty 80F. Not the best firefighting conditions in general, but it might help slow hotspots on the West end if they're blown back toward already burned areas. Three PWS stations reporting along W. Camino Cielo (atop the ridge in the fire area) are showing similar temperatures but the winds are less. Strongest ridge wind is 5-10mph reported just opposite the East end of Cachuma, swinging from the NE to SE, which could be blowing any embers onto un-burned areas. As I type this, helicopters are filling up at Salvar Bridge again. The other two PWS nearing 154 are pretty steadily about 5mph from SW & SE.
Here's a 10MB InciWeb "Operations Map of the Whittier Fire" by the "Day Shift" linked from their Whittier page:
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5339/
For speed and ease I'm attaching a smaller 200kb screencap of it.
Update 6:45pm:
I've also attached recent pix from 154@Foothill showing the main smoke plume, and a maximum zoom pic of a small white plume you can see at the far West (left) of the main plume pic.
JP
Jul 14, 2017, 9:40:54 AM7/14/17
to Santa Barbara Citizen Network
Another great write up. Thanks.
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