Re: Sierra National Forest – Willow Fire Update July 30th

The smoky and hazy conditions over Yosemite National Park will continue to persist due to the Willow Fire burning near Base Lake. The fire began on the afternoon of Saturday July 25 and has burned an estimated 1500 acres in brush and timber. It is approximately 25 miles southwest of the park, and poses no threat to the park. The South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team, with members from Yosemite, took command of the fire Sunday July 27. Currently 738 personnel are assigned to the fire.

The smoky and hazy conditions over Yosemite National Park may continue to persist due the Willow Fire burning near Base Lake. Air quality will be affected as the atmospheric inversion layer is not allowing the smoke haze to lift. The fire began on Saturday July 25 in the afternoon and has burned an estimated 1739 acres in brush and timber. It is approximately 25 miles southwest of the park, and poses no threat to the park. The fire ha been determined to be human caused. The South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team, with members from Yosemite, took command of the fire Sunday July 27. Currently 1215 personnel are assigned to the fire.

For additional information visit: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4413/

JKW and I were backpacking in the Glacier Point area last weekend and experienced the smoke from the Willow Fire. It's quite amazing how quickly the smoke from the fire grew. For most of Saturday the sky was clear and cloudless. It wasn't until maybe 4:00 or so that we could see smoke far in the distance over Merced Pass--at that time we thought it was some random fire south of the park that had been burning for awhile.



Within a few hours the smoke had drifted over us....



...and was even obscuring the views towards the northwest (this is in the direction of Sentinel Dome and Boundary Hill).



Normally smoke from fires will dissipate during the night, and for awhile the sky was clear, but the smoke returned in the early hours of the morning. By the time we were awake a dusting of ash had fallen on us.



We had planned on hanging around for the day, but the smoke was thick and we didn't want to breathe it in while exerting ourselves. The views were worse in the morning than they had been the previous night. By this time we knew the fire was well south of the park, so the smoke was the only danger of sorts.



The smoke did thin a bit throughout the morning, but a light haze obscured the normally excellent views.



It looked like the smoke had worked its way up the Merced and Tenaya canyons.



Still, we had a fun trip!

The smoky and hazy conditions over Yosemite National Park may continue to persist due the Willow Fire burning near Base Lake. The fire began on Saturday July 25th in the afternoon and has burned an estimated 2077 acres in brush and timber with 30% containment. It is approximately 25 miles southwest of the park, and poses no threat to the park. Smoke was visible from the southern areas of the park as a smoke column rose to 15,000’. Currently 1546 personnel are assigned to the fire.

For additional information visit: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4413/

Quote
eeek
The smoky and hazy conditions over Yosemite National Park may continue to persist due the Willow Fire burning near Base Lake. The fire began on Saturday July 25th in the afternoon and has burned an estimated 2077 acres in brush and timber with 30% containment. It is approximately 25 miles southwest of the park, and poses no threat to the park. Smoke was visible from the southern areas of the park as a smoke column rose to 15,000’. Currently 1546 personnel are assigned to the fire.

For additional information visit: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4413/

Don't they mean Bass Lake?

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plawrence
Don't they mean Bass Lake?

Duh. Of course they do.

I was there this weekend and it was hazy but you could not always smell the smoke. Got stuck in a huge hail storm Saturday afternoon at T. Meadows for about 20 minutes. I was glad I was in the car and not out hiking since it was bigger than pea size.