Title: August 12, 2026 - Delilah
When I woke up this morning, there were clouds to the west and north. When I did my lightning report.I was shocked to see all of the strikes over Jesse Morrow Mtn, Tivy, and around Trimmer-I did not hear a thing. These places are between 12-15 miles away from me. I was thinking about the discussion about how secure is the lookout if it is struck? I made sure I had my lightning stool ready and all of the things I would need during a thunderstorm. Still there is a bit of apprehension. By the way, the shock mentioned above was figuratively, not literally.
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| Clouds over Jesse Morrow Mtn and Tivy |
I tracked what these clouds were doing and did not see them moving closer, so I relaxed a bit, but not much. When I looked a bit further on where the strikes were, I saw a string up highway 99 from Visaila to Kingsburg, going over to Reedley and then to the areas already noted. When I turn on the radio, I hear patrols trying to track down if there were strikes in the northern part of the Sierra National Forest.
I do not have time to do too much more than have breakfast, wash up, take down the stuff I do not need today, as I will be going home tonight. I get enough walk time to walk for a couple of minutes, before heading back up into the cab. When I get up there, I take the weather and get ready. The weather still looks the same as it did when I got up.
A few minutes before 0930, both Park Ridge and Delilah go in-service. Then it goes on to the normal routine of listening to the radio, doing scans and practicing locations. I am also keeping an eye on where the clouds are, which leads to lightning. So far nothing to be concerned about. I hear Porterville reporting the weather and staffing. Then at 1100, I responded to Sierra’s lookout check in.
Richard and I talk some more about lightning and what the plan is. I am still comfortable with the lightning stool/ So I will stay in the tower for the rest of the day.
About noon, I am doing my scan, when I see some discoloration through the haze beyond Sacate Ridge. What am I seeing? I looked at it for a while. Then I see some of the whiteness in the area rising. I look a minute more to confirm, then radio in what I see. The azimuth is at 338 with an approximate distance of 12 miles. I cannot see the base as it is beyond Sacate. I confirm it is in the direction of Haslett Basin-I cannot see into the basin. Sierra radios me back after a while to confirm what I saw and the azimuth. I also talked with Judy who will come in after me about what she will be coming into.
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| The slight discoloration in the center behind Sacate |
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| Same photo filtered so you can see more of the discoloration |
Sierra is throwing the whole army at this, including an air attack and a tanker. Several units are sent as well. Battalion Chief 42 radio’s me about 20 minutes later and asks what I am seeing now. The haze has cleared, and the column which I was seeing before has almost completely disappeared. Both air attack and unit 430 say they cannot see any smoke. The units and the air are called off. One of the units, Fresno4, is left to observe. After two hours, they still do not see any smoke, so they are relieved and allowed to do their other duties. I will go into my speculation in the Background.
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| Same shot half an hour afterwards |
After this, I talked with Wendy, our lookout wise woman,both me calling in the smoke and about lightning or as I said to her, I needed a sanity check. But before I talked about that, I recapped my smoke report and the outcome. She notes that it looks like I went through the proper procedures. Which I think I did, still it sits with me wrong to radio in a bad smoke call. Wendy says not to beat myself up.
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| Air Attack |
The rest of the day, is uneventful. The normal stuff. I was hoping that I would not be faced with another situation where it was a call which would look questionable later. But there is nothing even close. I did talk with Buck Rock about the status of our hours. We are off of extended hours.
Greg calls and we discuss the inspection. There is no change of plans on my part. Greg will be talking with those in charge of our area about direction and meaning of the report. This sounds like it will be taken seriously and may not have resolution for a little while. Later on there is a directive which said, if there is lightning in the area, get out of the tower.
Hume Lake Region District will not be on extended houses, but Sierra will. What this means is that I will be leaving at 1800. After the 1600 Sierra checkin, I start cleaning up so I will leave the cab presentable for Judy. Yesterday and today I cleaned the windows. I also heat up my hamburger dinner. By 1800, I went out of service with both Sierra and Porteville. By the time I lock up, get down the stairs and put everything in its place, it is 1820. I am able to get home a few minutes after 2000. The first order of business is to take a shower-which feels so good. Then talk with Sherri for awhile
Background
A few days later, after getting home, I was processing my photos from today. I noticed that I had taken a picture of Sacate Ridge about 40 minutes before the rising white stuff which I thought was smoke. The image shows a very dark area right where I saw my smoke. It looked like a very intense spot of rain. My hypothesis is that what I was seeing and reporting was left over from this downpour. That the white going up may have been due to an updraft pushing up some of the leftover mist. I think there may be other plausible explanations. I really hope it is not that Gary is fading as a useful lookout.Below are the images I took of the area before and after what I saw:
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| Picture where the discoloration was 40 minutes before |
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| Discoloration as I saw it |
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| Lightly filtered from above |
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| Heavily Filtered |
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| Same area about half an hour later |
Extra Photo's
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| Afternoon clouds to the east |
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| Outhouse view |
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| Virga to the southeast |
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| Morning cloud over Dude Ridge |
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| Morning skies |
