Really bad fire weather forecast for California

[Cudedog]

A few more major fires have popped up here in California over the last few days, one of them is burning around (perhaps actually in) the small Alpine county town of Markleeville (near where the earthquake of a few days ago was centered - currently 21,000 acres with zero containment):

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/07/17/tamarack-fires-wall-of-flames-closing-in-on-markleeville/


Tamarack Fire, Alpine County & Markleeville, Ca.

According to this link, Markleeville has already been evacuated. Reportedly, this fire was ignited by lightning on July 4th. Often lightning strikes will smolder for a bit before they get going.

And then, now this from the United States National Weather Service, below. Widespread thunderstorms with abundant lightning - and with little to no rain - is about as bad as a summer weather forecast gets out here.

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Sacramento CA
229 PM PDT Sat Jul 17 2021

...Thunderstorms with Abundant Lightning and Little Rainfall
Sunday through Monday...

Monsoonal moisture moving up from the south will bring the
potential for thunderstorms with abundant lightning and little
rainfall across portions of interior northern California Sunday
through Monday. Thunderstorms may develop Sunday afternoon over
the Sierra south of I-80, then spread northward into portions of
the Coastal Range, the southern Cascades and the northern Sierra
north of I-80 overnight. Isolated thunderstorms may also develop
in the Valley. Best thunderstorm potential will be over the
mountains. Given critically dry fuels, any lightning strikes may
result in high probability of [fire] ignition.

https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ016&warncounty=CAC101&firewxzone=CAZ216&local_place1=Yuba%20City%20CA&product1=Fire+Weather+Watch&lat=39.1409&lon=-121.6199#.YPOGgkBlBIA

Hold on to your socks. This isn't going to be pretty. And our worst fire month is generally October. . . early November our first rains. Only four months to go.

A lightning-strike weather band hitting south of Interstate 80 in the bone-dry Sierra spreading northward to the equally bone-dry southern Cascades is very bad news indeed.

Anne

[mtngal]

I’ve been dreading this forecast while hoping it would change. Sadly it’s only looking worse. The oak leave in our area are turning yellow and dropping.

[Cudedog]

I’ve been dreading this forecast while hoping it would change. Sadly it’s only looking worse. The oak leave in our area are turning yellow and dropping.

No, it's not looking good. As you know, aside from the Sierras and the Cascades themselves, there are probably tens of thousands of acres of of dry hills "blended in" with a great many northern California communities: this is the danger of the western states "wildland-urban interface":

https://www.pnas.org/content/115/13/3314

Meanwhile, the Tamarack Fire in Markleeville (California) rages on (18,000 acres, 0% containment):


And the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon (currently the largest fire burning in the United States) has ballooned to 288,170 acres with 22% containment (Terminal City, on the lower left, is about 4 miles north of Klamath Falls):

[MandysMom]

At 10:30 it's already 92°. No smoke here yet , but following the Tamarack fire closly, as I camped there as a child with my family and it's only 120 miles uphill from us. Praying today's predicted dry lightning storms don't materialize. Scary times.
Velda

[BarbaraRose]

The beginning of that system must be what we had last night. Lots of thunder and lightning and hardly any rain, now on it's way to northern CA.

I feel so bad for all the people in those areas, the firefighters working so hard in almost impossible conditions, and the animals, both domestic and wildlife in the paths of the fires. Such a horrible situation, and no end in sight.

[JudyJB]

Anybody raise the pay of those firefighters yet? I think Biden talked about a dollar but don’t know if it went through. Needs to be more like $20 or more instead of original $13/hour!!!

How can we expect firefighters to work on fast food wages???

[Bethers]

Where is anyone seeing that low pay for California firefighters! The average pay for them is around $75,000 per year. And here's a picture of the start of a table regarding firefighter pay from states. California is second highest.

[monik7]

Where is anyone seeing that low pay for California firefighters! The average pay for them is around $75,000 per year. And here's a picture of the start of a table regarding firefighter pay from states. California is second highest.

Beth, the difference is what the federal government pays firefighters as opposed to what cities/counties pay. President Biden talked about increasing pay up from $13/hour to at least $15/hour which is still way too low in my opinion. Firefighters employed my the federal government make practically nothing considering the hours they work and dangers they’re subjected to.
Sandi

[Bethers]

Thanks, Sandi.

[JudyJB]

This is where I originally saw the article about pay. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/lack-of-federal-firefighters-hurts-california-wildfire-response

And here: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2021/07/08/exhausted-federal-firefighters-seek-fix-low-pay-lacking-benefits/7903773002/

I am glad to hear the ones hired by states and cities are paid a lot more. They certainly deserve it to risk their lives and work in such difficult conditions.

[Cudedog]

Where is anyone seeing that low pay for California firefighters! The average pay for them is around $75,000 per year. And here's a picture of the start of a table regarding firefighter pay from states. California is second highest.

I am glad to hear the ones hired by states and cities are paid a lot more. They certainly deserve it to risk their lives and work in such difficult conditions.

Beth and Judy, there are all kinds of "firefighters" here in California, with all kinds of salary levels. I'm not sure (couldn't tell from the graphic) but I'm thinking that the high salaries on the list you posted was for "regular" firefighters - the career guys that staff one's local fire station. Except for in extremely rare emergencies, the staff and equipment (firetrucks) at a local fire station are never sent out to fight a wildland fire.

The guys fighting wildfires - those you see in the photos and videos cutting brush, raking debris, climbing steep hills dragging hose - are generally temporary, seasonal workers. In California (and I am sure that every western state has their own policies and procedures), one can apply to be a "Firefighter 1" at CalFire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) usually sometime in October or November, for hiring the following spring, for a seasonal position lasting up to 9 months (depending on the duration and intensity of the fire season).

I did some sleuthing, but was unable to find an official pay scale for these seasonal fire fighters on the CalFire website (I found some online references to their pay scale, but since these references were not on the CalFire website, they can only be considered to be conjecture).

Nor was I able to find out if these seasonal workers just are "on call" unless or until there is a major fire that requires their services, or if they are paid a regular salary once they are hired for the temporary, seasonal time period they were hired for.

CalFire Firefighter 1: https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/8611/flame_step-up_flyer.pdf ["Fire Fighter I is a seasonal, temporary classification. A Fire Fighter I is usually hired in April, May or June, and the length of employment may be up to nine months,
depending on the duration and intensity of the fire season."]

Then there are "Inmate Firefighters". These are people that are incarcerated in the prison system, that volunteer to be a fire fighter while incarcerated:

"In exchange for extremely dangerous work, prisoners earn time off their sentences and are paid between $2 and $5 a day, plus $1 per hour when they are on a fire. Because incarcerated firefighters are paid so little, the program saves the state of California $90 million to $100 million a year."
https://www.hcn.org/articles/climate-desk-wildfire-california-incarcerated-firefighters-face-dangerous-work-low-pay-and-covid19

I'm guessing that most - if not all - of the seasonal and inmate firefighters doing the heavy lifting during the wildfires here can only dream of making the $79,000 salary listed as "average" for California on your list.

Anne

[Cudedog]

A lot of lightning strikes were recorded with the passing front - I wasn't aware of any thunder or lightning in my area, but there were 3,829 strikes in California over the 24-hour period, with 1,872 recorded within the National Forests in California.

It remains to be seen if any of these strikes result in wildfire. Sometimes these ignitions will smolder for a week or more before, maybe, a wind comes up to really get them going.

One can but hope that no additional fires have been started. We certainly have more than enough fires burning at the present time, we don't need more.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

I read somewhere that CA incarcerated firefighters have the option to become full-fledged fire fighters once they get out of prison. So kind of on-the-job training.

Found this article about it... https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/91219374 ... refighters