The Inyo National Forest burned 121 acres yesterday at Crestview, east of Highway 395.  At the time of ignition, there was still a slight haze in the Owens Valley from a Martin Luther King’s Day dust event.  The Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District approved the burn despite this because there are several days of good dispersion forecasted as a weekend storm approaches.  Southwest surface winds and northwest transport winds made for a nearly ideal presription for ignition.

Crestview Unit 9A from Smokey Bear Flat

Crestview Unit 9A from Mono City

The Inyo National Forest did 100 acres on their Crestview broadcast burn yesterday off Bald Mountain Road, south of Mono Lake.  The smoke plume dispersed to the northeast, as can be seen in the satellite image and photo facing north up Owens Valley from near the intersection of Ed Powers Road with State Route 168.

The Inyo National Forest did a broadcast burn, Pilot/Corsair, of approximately 156 acres yesterday a few miles southeast of Mono Lake.  Today they will burn another 100 acres of their Crestview broadcast burn.  The photo below of Pilot/Corsairwas taken at about noon from the Crooked Meadows turnoff from East State Route 120, facing southeast. The smoke plume got vertical lift of about 5,000-7,000 feet above ground-level, allowing for good dispersion to the ESE (see 1:45 PM satellite image below).

There was some concern, based on fire weather predictions, that the winds would change to out of the north later in the afternoon and evening.  This did not materialize though as the smoke plume continued to go east towards nightfall, as can be seen looking up Owens Valley from East Line Street in the photo below.  The smoke stacked up against the White Mountains some, but then dispersed on over into Nevada.  Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) near the burn location actually recorded the winds shifting to the south overnight.

Yosemite National Park has announced its decision (www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/current_fire.htm) to contain the Avalanche Fire at only 1,075 of the 5,800 acres that had been planned for the project.  Smoke monitors set up by the Park and the National Forest Service recorded 24-hour average levels considered “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.”  The fire, started by lightning on 7/31/2011, reached a southern fire line established at the Old Glacier Point Road along Indian Creek on 8/16/2011 (see map below).  Because weather conditions for effective smoke dispersion were deteriorating and models forecasted no improvements for several days, it was decided to effect final containment rather than just a temporary hold at this line.

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The Lion Fire is nearly completed.  The Sequoia National Forest shared these photos from yesterday’s fire activity.  From a distance, one might think this is a scorching-hot fire that’s consuming everything in its path.

A closer look shows no crowning (burning to the tree tops) as the fire backs down the hill.

Looking from directly above, it can be seen that the only things burning are the lower level shrubs, grass, duff, litter (dead, fallen branches) and very small trees.  Most of the Lion Fire burned in this very desirable manner, reducing fuels and the potential for future catastrophic fire in dryer years.

On July 31, 2011, lightning ignited the Avalanche Fire at 37.6633, -119.7037, in the Yosemite National Park.  This fire is being considered for management to achieve fire protection and resource benefits.  It could potentially grow to 5,800 acres, as decribed in detail by the Smoke Management Summary, Final Smoke Management Summary Avalanche2011, that the park submitted to the Mariposa County Air Pollution Control District.  The fire was only 8 acres in size as of yesterday when the document was written.

About 300 more acres will have burned today on the Lion Fire.  The smoke shown below from south of the fire this afternoon is already making it into the Owens Valley.  The incident commanders expect nearly this same burn rate for the next 2-3 days, after which the progression will drop off and the mop-up stage will begin.

Much of the smoke appears to be staying aloft and continuing east, as seen below from south of Owens Lake, looking north.  Hopefully, this will mean less of an impact to the valley than yesterday.

It may be hard to believe based on today’s smoke, but the Lion Fire (www.inciweb.org/incident/2400/) is actually winding down.  The incident commanders from the Sequoia National Forest have been in daily contact with the California Air Resources Board, the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District and with us at the Great Basin APCD.  They report that the fire has only 5-7 more days during which it will be actively growing.  There are just a few hundred more acres around a private property that need to be secured.  They will be hand-igniting some of that area in order to accomplish this goal safely.  In response to APCD requests, the Sequoia has reevaluated and cut in half the number of acres they feel are necessary to complete this stage.  This is greatly appreciated.

This morning the smoke could be seen approaching Bishop.

And by noon, it arrived.

The area producing this smoke is only about 250 acres versus the 2,500 acres per day that burned on 3 consecutive days last week.  Today the dispersion conditions just didn’t allow for the smoke to move as quickly through the valley.

The photo of the Lion Fire smoke below, taken yesterday just after 7:00PM from Keeler looking west across Owens Lake towards the Sierra, aptly illustrates the evening valley downslope wind effect.  As the air cools aloft at the ridgeline, it starts a current of airflow down the slope to the valley floor.  In this case, it carried the smoke down with it into Lone Pine.  This phenomenon happened to some degree all the way north up the Eastern Sierra/Owens Valley interface.  Gratefully, it only pulled down a portion of the smoke plume.

The Lion Fire (www.inciweb.org/incident/2400) grew to 16,350 acres yesterday, July 27, 2011, as the Sequoia National Forest continued to ignite new areas, burning back from terrain features such as rocky ridges and creekbeds in order to establish containment lines.  They have been employing this strategy for the last several days causing a dramatic increase in acreages burned per day and smoke emissions (see burn progression at Lion_7-27-2011.  We’ve all seen and experienced the smoke.  Although only listed as 15% contained, the fire is pretty successfully boxed in by these “burnout” operations.  Therefore, growth and smoke emissions should drop off dramatically in the next few days.

Below are two photos from yesterday at about 6:00 PM looking north from Haiwee Reservoir and from just south of Olancha.  Luckily, for many Inyo County communities, much of the smoke went up and east, over into Nevada.

A large portion of the smoke plume dispersed north however, as seen from this satellite image at 2:10PM, and settled into the upper Highway 395 corridor later in the afternoon and evening.