July 19, 2021 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: July 19, 2021 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background :: Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

 

Sun and Cloud patterns on the ground

Description:

Woke up at 0540. Turns out that today will be like the Chicago song, Thunder and Lightning. Did the lightning report. Much easier with a good WiFi connection, unlike last week at a hotel. LAL=3, which means there will be significant lightning happening. I also had a text conversation with Kathy about clouds forming and the possibility of lightning.

I was able to go for a twenty minute walk just up the road and around. By the time I get back, it is 0750. At 0800, we go into service with Porterville-the Hume Lake Ranger District is on extended hours-seems like we are getting a lot of that this Summer. Both Delilah and Buck Rock

Water Dog

go in-service shortly after we do. Oatmeal is breakfast this morning-I think I made too much.

At 0814, I get the first lightning text alert from the vendor which I do my lightning report from-this is for Buck Rock. Ten minutes later, there is some lighting around Stoney Creek. So Park Ridge Lookout gets an alert as well. Buck Rock kicks in with a weather report of some precip and sounds of thunder from the Shell Mountain area. Shortly afterwards, we started seeing flashes around Shell Mountain. Then beyond Big Baldy we see some flashes-looking at a lightning map, they show up right in a line from Yucca Pt (which I really think is Yucca Mountain as Yucca Pt is off of the Kings rather than the Kaweah) to Chimney Rock and then just the other side of Big Baldy. There are still clouds threatening to throw bolts from the sky. Sure enough, now a strike is directly west of us. A few minutes later, one happens to the northwest of us. That second one looked a bit stronger and on McKinzie Ridge. Far enough away to not feel threatened, but close enough that it is exciting. We do radio in the strikes we see, probably a bit more accurately with the lightning map aiding us.

 

 

Smoke or What?

To the east, I see a cloud of white through the haze. We gaze at it for a few minutes and it is still there. But we are unsure. So we ask Buck Rock if they have eyes on the area. She does not see anything. We make a note to continue to monitor that area. And then there is something which looks like a low cloud among the few trees on top of Poop-Out Pass. It does not rise up, so we also put that down as something to check back on. In the meantime, water dogs start to rise up all over the place. Several against Big Baldy down by Redwood Canyon, several in the Eshom area, and some in the Grant Grove area. We check back on the”smoke” we see to the east. The haze has cleared a bit-it is only sun glistening off of wet granite.

 

 

Which is a real smoke? Answer in Background

The “cloud” near Poop-Out Pass is still hanging in there, but getting smaller. What is this? A real smoke or a water dog? Then our attention gets drawn to a dirty cloud just beyond Grant Grove, some place going down into Mill Flat. Is this another water dog or a real smoke? It is in the direction of the strike to the northwest of us. Then back to Poop-Out. The cloud is gone. Guess it must have been a water dog. After that, would a real smoke disappear? Speaking of disappearing, so does the cloud over the ridge behind the Grant Grove area. Throughout the day we would look over at these spots a bit apprehensively.

Around 1045 we hear a radio call to Ash Mountain Fire from maintenance. He had seen smoke in the Redwood Canyon area. He was having a bit of a difficult time describing where they were and what kinds of clouds we were seeing. Later we radio Ash Mountain Fire saying we have seen water dogs in that area as well.

Red-Fire, Blue=Lightning strikes; light Blue-Water Dogs

Then at 1133, a Park crew reports seeing smoke from the Big Baldy area. We say we do not see anything on our side of Big Baldy. Then they narrow it down to the Chimney Rock area. Turns out it is on the Forest side of Chimney Rock. But each agency helps the other. After all, a fire can affect everyone. This will be called the Rock Fire. It will be worked on the rest of the day Monday and all day Tuesday. Wednesday they will pull hoses and put it into patrol status. The fire is less than an acre. But I think they are very concerned about how fast this fire could spread. It is reported that the fire was started by a lightning strike-maybe one of those which we saw.

Then at 1452 we heard that there was a smoke in the Millwood area. Do we see it? No. But remember that smoke we saw this morning? It is in the same general direction. This fire will be called the Drainage Fire. Patrols were converging from several areas-some coming in from the road into Delilah, another from the Abbott Creek area. Buck Rock can see it (we still cannot be) and describes it as drifting, dirty and puffy. But so far it is very localized. Turns out two trees are burning with a burn area smoldering of 30’x10’. This has been confirmed to be caused by a lightning strike.

At 1800 we went out of service with Ash Mountain Fire. But we will stay on until 2000 with Porterville.

Buck Rock sighting from Park Ridge

You know that other “interesting” cloud we saw earlier? The one on top of Poop-Out Pass? It was reported at 1822 there was a smoke reported up there. We saw this smoke and then it disappeared. It is too late to bring someone in today. But early tomorrow a team will be hiking to Poop-Out Pass.

During all of this, the Hume Lake Ranger District went into what is called lightning plan. I had heard the term before, but it had been awhile back and my confession is that it was a bit abstract for me. This at first can be a bit confusing, but the idea is to simplify command and make it local. The idea is that once there are multiple fires in an area, the command should be consolidated. Fire communications would go through the duty officer.

At 2000, we went out of service with Porterville. We have had a long day, a very long day. But it had been a good one. There is only about 40 minutes before it gets dark. So we get the cab cleaned up and everything put away. Then go on out and enjoy the sunset and the stars before going to bed.

 

 

Background

Water Dogs: The basic technique we use is to observe their behavior. If they form into a column-smoke, If they seem more light and ethereal, water dog. That one to the northwest of us a bit troublesome. At first it looks dirty, in the direction of our strike to the northwest. It just seemed to set there and eventually it disappeared. Turns out we should have called it in. But this is not fool proof as you can read above.

As far as the quiz is concerned, the definite answers are that A) is the results of a logging operations. D) is the lightning strike which resulted in the Drainage Fire. B), C) and E) are all probably water dogs, but there is some dispute from experienced fire lookouts on what we are seeing.

LAL (Lightning Activity Level):

 

 

Lightning Plan: This gets activated when there are multiple lightning caused fires in a District, such as the Hume Lake Ranger District. The idea is to treat all of these fires a single fire with a single Lightning Coordinator/Incident Commander-there may be ones who will manage the individual fires. The lookouts and those involved with the fire will report to the Lightning Coordinator. This way we will have a heads up on what is happening with the fires and not involve the rest of the forest with our radio calls.

 

 Extra Photo's

Helicopter flying in front of Park Ridge Lookout

Looking East at rain clouds

Smoke for what would become the Drainage Fire

Looking south-rain falling beyond Big Baldy