It is a Sunday, August 29th will be dealing
with critical and pivotal fire weather.
Today. Everything changes after today
so today is going to be one of the
biggest days for the fire fight.
And in containing this wildfire of the
Caldor fire, let's take a look at it.
It's been burning overnight and getting
so close to Sierra Tahoe just right here.
You can actually see portions of the
ski lift and over that Ridge is that
fire just glowing in the night sky?
We've also seen other images very similar.
This is near leaks springs.
You can see just the underglow underneath
those trees of all that fire that's
been burning all the smoke overnight.
An inversion layer just over the area
that's basically warmer temperatures
at a higher altitude,
right in between where the surface
is a little cooler and a little
higher above that is cooler as well,
so this thermal belt that happens here
keeps things a little calmer when it comes
to winds temperatures as well as warmer.
And then we're also seeing that
the firefight in these conditions
can be handled a little better.
The problem is in the overnight.
Hours we do deal with some of those
downslope winds that push through
and can also start pushing that
fire right back up to rain because
it has something to grasp onto.
Let's talk about the Caldor fire overnight.
Yesterday was a crucial day as well
as fire crews had to deal with
trying to contain the fire from
spreading into strawberries.
So here's where we're looking at
the leading edges of the fire.
The red dots here are the strongest fire
activity pushing towards strawberry,
and yesterday we saw that the lines
here there were just cruise of people.
Along 50,
just trying to contain it back doing back
burns so that the fire that they can
control will meet up with the existing fire.
Currently what we look at overnight
is that an east wind usually pushes
in overnight and pushes some of
the fire back the opposite way.
And this is where we can get some spot fires.
Fires that just pop up kind of
out of nowhere.
Little short range and sometimes even long
range fires where embers fly over miles
and then land and they start a new fire.
That is not what we want to see,
but could.
See from Monday to Tuesday.
In the last couple of days
yesterday and into today,
we could see shorter range spot
fires where they only kind of move
maybe a couple 100 feet or so now.
Overnight hours we see that easterly wind
pushing some of these fires tored the West.
This is of concern because
areas that have been evacuated,
even though this is the leading edge
of the fire, the head of the fire.
These zones here near Grizzly
Flats in Somerset, just down.
There are still evacuated
because some of these spot fires,
just like the one closer to Slide Park.
Could make its way down toward the
West again through the overnight hours,
so there's still under those mandatory
evacuations because of that potential.
Now in the daytime hours this shift in
winds happen where we get winds coming
in out of the West off the ocean and
then push toward the east toward the
Sierra that pushes the fire eastward
toward areas of South Lake Tahoe.
That's not what we want to see,
of course, because we love our Lake
Tahoe area as well and a lot of these
homes in the area continue to grow.
Because Wes, you start getting from
Strawberry Tord areas at Tahoe.
A lot more cabins, a lot more homes.
Things of that nature.
So we're trying to at least stop
the spread as much as possible
and things are changing quickly.
So today is going to be one of the last
crucial days to try to get as much of
the air tankers the retardant over
the area to try to stop the spread,
the handcrews, the bulldozers,
everything they can.
They're throwing at it.
With nearly 3500 people on the front lines,
they're trying to just contain
it as much as possible.
Unfortunately,
spot fires have a whole new mind of its own,
pretty much.
It's Mother Nature.
Just dragging a number further away where
fire crews just can't handle it or early.
This morning we're looking at
visibility limited to about a mile
to two miles around the calendar.
Fire and areas in the foothills
to Truckee South Lake Tahoe.
We're looking at three miles
invisibility now.
This is a little bit better than
yesterday morning at this time when
visibility was about one mile for
everyone 7 miles in the valley,
so little better as well for valley
spots yesterday were down about
four miles invisibility,
so things have improved.
Slightly overnight and as we start
moving from Monday to Tuesday,
they do expect to get better visibility,
but of course worse because the winds
are pushing flames and fire toward the east.
Let's take a look at our smoke forecast.
This also helps paint the picture of
what we see when we see those flames moving.
Now as we start moving from Sunday 11:00 PM,
you notice here that the air
quality pretty much throughout
the day looks like this orange,
yellow greenish spots that is moderate
to unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Air quality the orange and
red is unhealthy air quality.
Once we get to the Dark Maroons and purples,
now we're looking at very unhealthy
to hazardous air quality.
I'm talking over 500 with the Air
Quality index and just so bad you
can't even breathe in that stuff.
You shouldn't be breathing in that.
And then we're going to look at
that really just targeting areas
around the Caldor Fire Arnold and
South Lake Tahoe as we get to the
overnight hours by Monday 11:00 AM.
That's where we start to see
the shift here happening because
we're going to start to see winds
picking up for your Sunday.
Here's what we're looking
at in terms of air quality.
Unhealthy to very unhealthy from Sacramento,
to the foothills,
and in areas like the San Joaquin.
Stanislaus County spots
as well as yellow Solano.
Unhealthy for sensitive groups air.
Now the winds are going to
be calm to light today,
and that's what we've been looking
at through the morning hours.
They're going to continue that
way as much as about eight mile
per hour winds through the
foothills and then by tomorrow,
we'll see anything from
15 to 20 mile per hour.
Winds over some of the ridges here,
with gusts as high as 30 mph.
We do have some watches and warnings that
are going to take place starting Monday.
That's 11:00 AM to Tuesday 11:00 PM with
the fire weather watch in this tan shade.
This is for stronger winds right
around the calendar fire and for
these zones the fire weather warning.
That's the red zone here.
That's a red flag warning over
the Crest because the Sierra Crest
here is what's going to be dealing
with some of the strongest winds.
So take a look at this.
The strongest winds.
They start coming in right around here.
You're looking at 4:00 PM Monday.
They really start to pick up over
the Crescent over the Sierra.
This is currently the zone.
Where the Caldor fire is,
so they'll be moving up and over.
Not good news.
Firefighters trying to contain
all this fire here.
It could all really go back down
from 19% even as low as 10% or less.
They could have zero containment by Monday,
so we're hoping that the containment
line stays and that these winds
do not move the embers further.
Of course,
you can never guarantee that and
we're really trying to suppress
everything by creating retardant lines.
Bulldozer lines all those lines
around the fire as much as.
Possible for Sunday before Monday
hits with the strong winds,
winds moved through the Coastal
Ranges well about 18 to 20 mph.
But again,
these are just the sustained winds.
We're not even talking about wind
gusts that could pick up to 30 mph.
So really, Monday, Tuesday.
Crucial in the firefight for
Sunday to at least at least hold
on to containment lines.
But Monday,
Tuesday could make all
of that change quickly.
We're looking at mid 90s on Monday
and then expect those mid 80s.
A cooler day Tuesday, Wednesday.
But again,
that's because we're also getting
some stronger winds and cooler
air pushing through,
and that doesn't necessarily help
out with the firefight and then
taking a look into next week,
we'll expect to see those temperatures
there into those mid 90s.