2021 wildfire season: preventative measures to deal with increased wildfire risk

An interesting video from the Wall Street Journal on California's efforts to increase funding for preventative measures and other resources.

Direct link to video from Wall Street Journal

2021 wildfire season: NJ Forest Fire Service crews deployed to Montana

When I wrote my post on July 26th about Eastern United States deployments to various states in the Western United States to help with this devastating wildfire season out west, I knew that New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) engines and crews were deployed. I suspected that all or most of the NJFFS deployments were to Montana. 

 Just this morning, I saw a post from the NJFFS about the deployment of their engines, trucks and crews to Montana. I want to share this with you. With a note of extreme gratitude and pride that wildland firefighters are yet again helping to fight wildfires out west. I am very proud of all of you. I pray for your safety. You honor us and do New Jersey proud by your service.

2021 wildfire season: eastern area helping in the west

As this devastating wildfire season continues in the western U.S., I found myself wondering how States in the Eastern Area Coordination Center were helping in the west. Based on prior years, I knew that it was likely that wildland fire crews and engines in the eastern U.S. were helping in the west. So, I went to the Eastern Area Coordination Center to see what I could find out. I found my answer under predictive services in the resource summary page (the page I went to was dated July 24, 2021), what you see will be different.

To summarize what I saw as of Friday July 24, 2021 the Midewin International Hot Shot Crew was deployed to Montana and two type 2 IA (initial attack crews), one from Delaware and the other from Pennsylvania were also deployed to Montana.

There were a number of engines (and crew) deployed to Montana, California, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. These engines came from all over the eastern area, including but not necessarily limited to Delaware, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. Several states sent more than one engine. As I understand it the engines may or may not stay out west depending on the need in their home state, with engine crews rotating out after two weeks and may be replaced by new crews. 

I would like to thank all the crews and engine crews for your service helping the western states in their devastating wildfire season. You honor us with your service. Stay safe. 

2021 wildfire season: New South Wales 737 arrived in California

The 737 airtanker from New South Wales in Australia, known as Marie Bashir has arrived in San Bernadino, California. Thanks to the NSW Rural Fire Service for sending her to help out in the devastating wildfire season in the Western United States. She is on a 45 day deployment. Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation reported on the loan of the 737 by New South Wales on July 21st.

Friday Fun: Helicopter Aerobatics (EAA AirVenture 2018)

Join me in watching this six minute video of helicopter aerobatics featuring the Red Bull helicopter from the 2018 EAA AirVenture 2018.

Direct link to video uploaded by AirshowStuffVideos

2021 wildfire season: wildfires in western U.S. (July 21st edition)

Living on the east coast of the United States, and being someone who reads the news feed and reads my newspapers (print and digital), I can not help but notice the news of the extreme and devastating wildfire out west. My heart goes out to those affected and living in the path of these wildfires as well as all the wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air working these wildfires.  Among the wildfires that Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today has covered recently are the Dixie Fire in Northern California and the Tamarack Fire, also in Northern California. On July 18th Bill posted a quick summary of wildfires in Washington and Oregon.

Inciweb information on the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, the Dixie Fire CA), and the Tamarack Fire (CA).

I think that best way that I can offer my concern and thoughts for what those of you in the west are experiencing during this devastating wildfire season is to offer these two videos. The first video is from ABC10 in Northern California with a July 20th report on some of the major wildfires in that part of California.

Direct link to video from ABC10

The last video that I will share with you is July 20th report from the PBS Newshour. You will hear an interview with  Carrie Billbao of the National Interagency Fire Center discussing the extreme fire behavior in the western United States.

Direct link to video from PBS Newshour 

2021 wildfire season: New South Wales sending 737 tanker to U.S.

 I follow the NSW Rural Fire Service on Facebook and was very happy to read that after a request from the United States that their are sending their 737 tanker "Marie Basher" to the United States to help with the wildfires in the western United States. I am not ashamed to admit that this bought tears to my eyes. Thank-you NSW Rural Fire Service for helping us out in the western U.S. during what is turning into a devastating wildfire season. I wish you safe travels to the U.S, and safe flying once you get here. 

2021 wildfire season: wildfires out west (July 19th)

I must start with offering my kudos to all who report on what may be yet another catastrophic wildfire season in the western United States. On a regular, if not daily basis, my two go two sources of wildfire and fire aviation reporting are Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation and Mike Archers Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletter (five days a week). Without them, what I try to do would be a lot harder. I myself do not "report" and I may not always write a post about the wildfire season in the western United States, but I do try to be aware of what is going on. There are also various and sundry over the air, cable, print/online news media, various state and federal agencies, and a myriad of social media sites. 

A conversation with a friend of mine about the major wildfire out west led me to offer this article to acknowledge that I am troubled by the extreme drought, heat waves and the major wildfires burning out west. More importantly, I care about our wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air fighting wildfires. Thank-you firefighters for your service, I pray for your safety.

According the the National Interagency Fire Center in their National Wildfire News for July 19th:

Wildfire activity continues in 13 states where 80 large fires have burned 1,174,486 acres. More than 19,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents. To date, 35,086 wildfires have burned 2,537,744 acres in the United States. 

Over the weekend, fuels and fire behavior advisories were issued for south/central Idaho, Northern California, Northern Rockies, and south/central Oregon. Many of these advisories describe extraordinarily dry fuels, resulting in elevated fire potential and fire activity. 

What I offer here are four videos which offer only a brief glimpse into what is going out west. Many, but not all of these fires may be found on inciweb. Included in the wildfires that Bill Gabbert is covering are the Tamarack Fire (CA) and the Bootleg Fire (OR).

Direct link to video from CBS Evening News (July 17th)

Direct link to video from KPIX CBS in San Francisco

Direct link to video from The Oregonian

Direct link to video from KGW News

NOAA Satellites detect wildfire smoke

I try to keep an eye on videos and images shared by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) in part because satellites fascinate and as I learn I want to share this with you. NESDIS shares videos in their Earth from Orbit page. Yesterday, July 15th, NESDIS shared a video (also available on their YouTube Channel) called "Wildfire Smoke Blankets the U.S." A fascinating two minute video where you learn how NOAA's different satellites (GOES and the polar orbitors) monitor smoke and how this data is fed into models used by wildland firefighters and others to monitor wildfire smoke conditions. The July 15th Earth from Orbit by NESDIS may be found here, you may want to go I would recommend taking a couple of minutes to read the text that goes with their video. They say in part

Wildfire activity amid extreme heat and drought has resulted in smoke blanketing much of the United States and Canada. As of July 14, 2021, 68 active large fires in 12 states have burned more than one million acres of land in the U.S. To date in 2021, more than 34,000 fires have burned more than two million acres. This is the most fires in the January to July time period since 2011. July is relatively early to see wildfire activity of this magnitude.

NOAA satellites are monitoring the fires, their smoke output, and air quality effects from the smoke. The fires are injecting smoke 40,000 feet into the atmosphere and compromising air quality.

2021 wildfire season: Preparedness Level 5

 As some of you know, here in the U.S. the National Interagency Fire Center has five national wildfire preparedness levels.

Obtained on July 15, 2021 from https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information#current-level 

According to the daily wildfire information from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in their daily wildfire news (information on this page is updated daily so the figures you see may be different):

Seventy-one large fires and complexes have burned 993,678 acres across the United States. More than 17,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents. To date, 34,411 wildfires have burned 2,255,218 million acres. (obtained on July 15th from NIFC wildfire news

On July 14, 2021, NIFC raised the preparedness level to five, the highest level. This is the earliest the preparedness level has been at level 5 in ten years.

2021 wildfires: Beckworth Complex, California

 I was watching videos posted by the NJFFS Section B10 (videos change weekly) and came upon two videos of the Beckwourth Complex that has burned 95,358 acres in the Plumas National Forest. For more on this Complex read the article that Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today wrote on July 11th. 

The first video is about three minutes and the second video is a little over eight minutes.

Direct link to video by TNLA

Direct link to video by Action of the Day

Significant Flash Flooding near Delaware River in portions of NJ and PA

I occasionally take a time out to write about significant weather in my part of the world. I am over 50 miles from the areas that I am writing about. On, July 12th, severe thunderstorms went through portions of Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I was fortunate and only had light drizzle. Not so in Bucks County in Pennsylvania and adjoining New Jersey. Towns where significant flooding occurred include Bensalem, Bristal, and Croyden in Bucks County, PA; and Florence, NJ in Burlington County. Note that these towns are in the upper right of the image below with Philadelphia in the lower Left for reference, click on the map for a larger image.

The NWS in Mt. Holly, New Jersey issued a Flash Flood Emergency late in the afternoon of July 12th. Some places received six to ten inches.

A significant flash flood occurred Monday afternoon and evening near the Delaware River in Bucks and Burlington Counties. The areas greatest impacted by this event received 6"-10" of rain in around 3-4 hours. This is estimated to be a 100 year flood. #PAwx #NJwx pic.twitter.com/BZZ9F1rOPk

— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) July 13, 2021

Please, if you get alerted to a Flash Flood Warning on your smartphone, please heed the warning, go somewhere safe, preferably high groundFrom what I could tell the waters rose pretty quickly, cars got stuck in the flood waters and some were forces out of their apartments or houses due to the flood waters. Please do not drive through a flooded roadway, turn around don't drown. For more of Flood safety see this NWS page.

A special shout out to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Mt. Holly NJ for doing a great job with their warnings in what must have been a difficult and life threatening situation. In addition to these flash floods, there were other significant thunderstorms last night elsewhere in their forecast area. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you NWS Mt Holly for a job well done.

Kudos to all the first responders who helped flood victims to safety. Nice job! Thanks so much for your service.

WHYY, the National Public Radio Station in Philadelphia has a July 13th report on the flooding. WABC6 in Philadelphia had an eight-minute report on the flooding on July 12th.

Direct link to video from ABC6 Philadelphia on YouTube

Fatal crash of Air Attack Airplane in Arizona

 I was saddened to hear the news of the fatal crash of an air attack airplane near the Cedar Basin Fire in Arizona on Saturday, June 10th. Twenty-four hours had passed when I heard the news last night of the crash from a friend who knows of my blog. Not knowing any details beyond what my friend told me, I went to Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation site and saw his two articles, the first on July 10th reporting on the crash with information from the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona. He wrote a second article on July 11th with more information:

The Bureau of Land Management has released the names of the two men killed July 10 in the crash of an air attack aircraft in Arizona.

The incident occurred at about noon during initial attack efforts on the Cedar Basin Fire, which is 14 miles east of Wikieup in northwestern Arizona.

Pilot Matthew Miller, 48, and Air Tactical Group Supervisor Jeff Piechura, 62, were on board a Beechcraft King Air C-90 aircraft conducting visual reconnaissance and aviation command and control over the fire. Mr. Miller was a fire pilot with Falcon Executive Aviation, Inc. contracted by the U.S. Forest Service. Mr. Piechura was an employee with the Coronado National Forest. Their remains have been recovered from the accident site.

In addition to Bill's article on Fire Aviation cited above, I found this news release from the Bureau of Land Management in  Arizona on Facebook and a report from CBS in Phoenix Arizona.

My heartfelt prayers go out to Jeff and Matthew's families, friends, colleagues, and all who loved them. May Jeff and Matthew always fly in favorable winds.

2021 wildfire season: BLM Alaska Smokejumpers First Jump

Knowing that is summer in Alaska, I have been thinking about the wildland firefighters in Alaska. I know from my reading that smokejumpers play an important roll in fighting wildfires in Alaska. I wanted to find a way to share something about smokejumpers and/or other wildland firefighting in Alaska. It was not hard for me to come up with a couple of videos to share with you, both are from BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Alaska. I wanted to do something to give a shoutout to all the wildland firefighters in Alaska in the air and on the ground. Thanks for all you do to keep the people in your Alaska safe from wildfires.

The first video is a short video about the BLM Alaska Smokejumper's annual refresher training that all smokejumpers go through.

Direct link to video from BLMAlaska

In the last video you will see the BLM Alaska Smokejumpers preparing for their first jump of the season on May 24, 2021 to the Pilot Point Fire that burned near a remote village. Twelve BLM Alaska Smokejumpers were deployed to the fire, providing important initial attack with burn out operations with the help of at least retardant drop from an air tanker. The Pilot Point Fire  burned approximately 3,750 acres and was 100% contained on Friday night, May 28, 202. See these two articles about this fire from the Alaskanewssource on May 25th and May 29th

Direct link to video from BLM Alaska

Hurricane Hunters: early July 2021 edition

 I see this blog as sometimes delving into issues having to do with uses of aviation resources that are not specifically related to wildland firefighting. In prior years I have written about the use of NOAA and Air Force Reserve aircraft to hunt or fly into hurricanes, tropical storms. See for example this series that I wrote in 2015, some of the information in this 2015 series is dated but if you spend some time with those articles you can dive a little deeper into how Hurricane Hunter aircraft and crew do what they do. The two NOAA WP-3Ds have, to the best of my knowledge, been overhauled. Also, NOAA's hurricane hunters no longer fly out of Mac Dill, they fly out of Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland, Florida. NOAA maintains and Aircraft Operations webpage that has more information on their program. 

I spent some time on Monday helping a friend find their way around the National Weather Service's hurricane watches and warnings. This got me thinking about the great work that the NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft and crew do in flying hurricanes to gather data that provide current meteorological data on the hurricanes. So, I decided to devote today's article to an overview of Hurricane Hunters.

NOAA has two specially equipped Lockheed WP-3 Orion "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft that fly into hurricanes, Miss Piggy and Kermit. NOAA's G-IV Jet flying above and around the storm, for more information on these aircraft go here. In addition to NOAA's to Hurricane Hunters, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" are under the 403rd Air Force Reserve Wing. The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron fly specially equipped WC-130J aircraft out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. For more information see this factsheet.

I conclude by sharing two videos with you where you can get a brief over view about what the Hurricane Hunters do. The first video is a walk around of Kermit taken at the 2019 EAA AirVenture. You will learn about a little about how the NOAA Hurricane Hunters are used to obtain data directly from a hurricane or tropical storm.

Direct link to video on YouTube from EAA

The final video is footage from ViceNews of a Hurricane Hunter from the 53 Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and NOAA's Hurricane Hunters flying into Irma a category 5 hurricanes in 2017.

Direct link to video on Youtube from ViceNews

Happy summer holiday

This weekend has been a holiday weekend here in America as we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th.. I have been taking some time off to spend with my family. For those who celebrate, I thought you might enjoy This video from Airailimages of highlights of their videos along with some patriotic music. Allow about eight minutes.

2021 wildfire season: devastating wildfires hit Lytton, British Columbia

Like many of you, I had been hearing about the small town of Lytton in British Columbia, Canada for the last few days as its high temperatures gave this town the dubious honor of being the hotspot in North America. When I checked the newsfeed on my iPad this morning I saw an article reporting on wildfires that had destroyed most of the buildings in this small town. In reporting on these wildfires that hit Lytton, NPR reported a high temperature of 121F on June 29th, a day later the wildfires hit Lytton with all or most of the residents evacuating the evening of June 30th. Officials are still investigating these wildfires. IN addition to NPR, among the many media outlets reporting on the wildfires that hit Lytton are The Washington Post, and The Guardian. My heart goes out to the people of Lytton. As I write this, I am reminded that there may be more  Lytton's this wildfire season, just as there were towns severely impacted by other wildfires in recent years.

Direct link to video July 1st video report from CBC News