Re: Smoke in the Park?

For anybody who's been in the Park this week, I'm wondering what the air conditions are like? I'd expect that smoke from the Rim Rock fire is hurting visibility (although looking at the webcams around the valley, there doesn't seem to be much impact yet). I'm wondering even more about breathability? My wife and I will be out there towards the end of next week (spending a few nights in Yose West and then a few in White Wolf with day hikes in the associated areas) and I'm wondering what to expect in terms of air quality.

For anybody who's planning on going within the next few days, would love to hear air quality reports when you get back.

Not sure that can be predicted. Current satellite photos show the smoke headed mostly northwards, but it seems to be headed quite some distance northwards. So...I'd think it would depend entirely upon the wind direction at various levels in the atmosphere.

Ill be there shortly after you David, any updates upon your return will be appreciated.

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cantwait2getback
Ill be there shortly after you David, any updates upon your return will be appreciated.

Not sure if you've gone yet. I'm on my way back home now (TR to follow within the next week or so). Last Saturday, the winds stalled and the smoke came pouring into the southern part of the Park...very bad air quality all the way down to Wawona. On Saturday night, the wind must have picked up again because the weather was gorgeous for the rest of the week (although you could see a constant wall of smoke billowing along the north rim). Sounds like things are mostly under control now but I haven't had a chance to get fully caught up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2013 01:15PM by DavidK42.

Boy we got lucky. We went thursday to sunday. Clear through saturday, but sunday was nasty. The looks on the peoples faces as they walked up to the tunnel view lookout were priceless.

Today, 9-8-13, 8am


Yesterday at Nevada falls. Smoke plume visible


Washburn Point thursday, 9-5-13 10am

Current wind and weather projections, The Weather Channel:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Yosemite+National+Park+CA+CANPYOSE:13:US

Satellite view:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?subset=AERONET_Fresno.2013234.terra.1km
from:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/aqmonitoring.htm

NOAA forecasts:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Yosemite+National+Park&state=CA&site=HNX&textField1=37.7985&textField2=-119.514&e=0#.UhbQFIvn99A

Rim Fire map, from Joseph the Gmap4 guy:
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/fires/2013_rim_fire_map.html

National Interagency Situation report:
http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf
(From the 25Aug2013 report: 5 helicopters assigned to the Rim fire, 18 to the American fire by Tahoe.)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2013 05:01PM by KenS.

I was at Big Oak Flat today. No smoke. The pyrocumulus was awesome, but no smoke in the park today.

ABC Channel 7 news in SF had a long segment on how the Rim fire is NOT impacting the park. "All's fine. Come on up. DO NOT CANCEL YOUR RESERVATIONS." The park is large. Appeared more like an advertisement than a news report. Virtually no word on the area being hit hard by the fire, nor about the camps and structures that may be destroyed. Nor anything about the Hetch Hetchy. I am very concerned about the Berkeley Tuolumne Camp that to me was "the most wonderful place in the world" when I was a child and may be destroyed by this ghasty fire Of course, weather reports show huge plums of particulate matter. And Hetch Hetchy worried about ash in the water.

The reason I responded with such uncertainty...he asked about late next week. So...at this moment, satellite shows winds blowing the smoke northward, away from the park. So no impact (other than the loss of CA-120...and loss of access to Hetch Hetchy...and loss of campsite reservations if anyone is at Hodgdon Meadows). But, the same satellite pics show the smoke blowing a long way, as in visible smoke blowing towards the Minden, NV area. So, change the wind direction, and the park may get impacted. Between now and late next week, I'd have to guess the wind will change. The only question is where.

I am so sorry to tell you that the Berkeley Tuolumne Camp was destroyed in the fire. Here is a link to a news story
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Campers-Mourn-Loss-of-Berkeley-Tuolumne-Camp-221159071.html

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DavidK42
next week ... a few nights in ... White Wolf

There is a significant risk that you will not be able to get up to White Wolf, because 120 may be closed somewhere between the valley and White Wolf.

The fire is still quite a ways from causing a closure of 120 East.

If you are going to be in the Park, head right to the Crane Flat Lookout. The gate is usually open after 9pm and the helipad is not being used for this fire. Just make sure you park where the signs say to park and the walk the short trail to the lookout.

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Royalist

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DavidK42
next week ... a few nights in ... White Wolf

There is a significant risk that you will not be able to get up to White Wolf, because 120 may be closed somewhere between the valley and White Wolf.

I would have been happy to have been wrong about the risks to that part of the park.

We were also hoping that the fire would never make it that far but we started becoming resigned a few days ago that we might have to cancel that part of our trip. Now, of course, the area's officially closed so it looks like we won't be up in the high country on this visit. I'm very bummed for purely personal reasons (since I'm still living on the east coast, I typically only get out to Yosemite once a year and I REALLY need my fix!) the amount of devastation there is just heart-breaking to me. At least no one's died from this and injuries have, so far as I know, been minimal (the InciWeb site reports only 2 injuries to date).

We still plan to spend time in the southern portion of the Park and, unless conditions turn very bad there, we'll look to extend our stay there rather than cut the trip short. In a desperate attempt to find some kind silver lining (no matter how trivial), that would at least give me more time than I planned on for further exploring the Old Wawona and GP Roads (may actually manage to "complete" my wanderings of the OWR (at least in the sense of "get my feet on all surviving parts of the road at least once" ...I'm not sure I'd ever actually consider my exploration of it truly complete)).

I've been going to the Park regularly for about 10 years now and having missed the horrific fires and floods of the 90's, and having been only occasionally inconvenienced by some rockfalls, I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw my beloved Park go through some kind of natural disaster like this. I know that Yosemite will survive and that this is part of the natural process of that sort of area but it's horrible to see nonetheless.

It's all here in Reno!!!

This is tough, this Saturday I'm supposed to be doing a loop backpack trip out of Tuolumne Meadows. I don't want to cancel, but the W is very sensitive to smoke. Anybody report in from TM? How is it?

Not sure what direction your loop goes but have you seen Bearproof's aerial photos? If your loop plans included heading out along the Tuolumne River, it might be time for a plan B.

OH! Didn't see that! I knew the news was just "marketing" that no smoke was in the valley!! Frick. Our loop was down towards Sunrise, over to Merced, and up and out Rafferty. Looks like I'm high-tailing it to the Klamath. Hopefully that's far enough north!

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crya
OH! Didn't see that! I knew the news was just "marketing" that no smoke was in the valley!! Frick. Our loop was down towards Sunrise, over to Merced, and up and out Rafferty. Looks like I'm high-tailing it to the Klamath. Hopefully that's far enough north!

There shouldn't be any smoke on the route you described. All the smoke is to the north and west of that area.

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Old Dude