forestry firegeezer on 24 Jun 2008 08:14 am
More Than 800 Wildfires Burning In California
AN UNPRECEDENTED LIGHTNING STORM SWEPT ACROSS Northern California over the weekend and left untold hundreds of wildland fires in its wake.
A heavy thunderstorm on Friday had already created scores of fires and the forestry officials were still discovering and counting them on Sunday when the next big storm swept in from the Pacific Ocean. Weather systems over the Pacific do not have any identifiable structure nor leave a history as they travel, so there is no advance warning about the severity of the system when it arrives.
Sunday’s outbreak carried over 6,000 lightning strikes throughout the heavily-forested northern section of the state. By Sunday evening the number of fires identified had risen to 520. On Monday morning the count was up to 840.
Needless to say, the firefighting forces in the state are overwhelmed right now. Some larger fires only have 10% of the usual number of firefighters on the line and many smaller fires are untended. Thousands of additional FF’s and more aircraft are being brought into the area today.
AP
The largest of the fires is in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about 150 miles north of Sacramento where 1,200 homes are threatened.
To keep up to date on the events there, Firegeezer recommends that you check regularly with two Blogs:
Firefighter Blog HERE, and
WilfireToday HERE.
Both of these sites are published by retired wildfire professionals and they do a great job of providing insight into what is going on along with maps and satellite views.
The AP filed this video report on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press statement Monday morning:
