RIM FIRE

I could not help writing a blog on this incredible fire burning just south of Lake Tahoe across the Sierra Nevada Mountains some 120 miles east of San Francisco.



Current Information on the RIM Fire:

Fire Size: 63,366 acres
Percent Contained: 1%
Nearly 2,000 fire personnel are working on this fire

The Rim Fire, as of Friday Morning, has burned more than 105,620 acres of forest. The fire has destroyed nine structures and has caused one injury. 

The fire is raging out of control dangerously close to Yosemite National Park. At this time, the U.S. Forest Service says there is currently no threat to Yosemite Valley, however, that could change in a hurry with a slight change in wind direction.

Current Drought Conditions across the western United States: Areas in ORANGE represent SEVERE drought conditons, areas in RED represent EXTREME drought conditions.

This fire is extremely hard to control due to the SEVERELY dry conditions and the rugged terrain. 

Incredible Satellite Imagery of the massive wildfire from space:

Photo taken by NASA's MODIS Satellite yesterday of the fire 

High Resolution Imagery Animation of the smoke visible from space:

Air quality, as expected, has really become bad across northwestern Nevada and northeastern California (area shaded in red represents where the air is unhealthy to breathe):

This fire has gotten so large that it is now actually making its own weather. The fire is burning so hot that it is actually forming its own dry thunderstorms. Hot air rises, that rising air carries water vapor and smoke into colder areas of the atmosphere aloft allowing for pyrocumulus (fire clouds) to develop. Those pyrocumulus clouds can actually produce their own lightning and gusty winds, however, no precipitation falls, therefore, adding even more fuel to the out of control fire. 

Good video explanation of how pyrocumulus clouds develop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diDkILlA4zs

Incredible Photos of the smoke from the fire:

Hopefully this fire will come to an end soon. However, as of right now it does not look good. With high pressure parked over the middle of the nation, winds will continue to stay strong out of the southwest across California (especially at the higher elevations).