Wildfire — West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

2019-10-10 to 2019-10-31 · West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada, California

Event narrative

On October 10 a prescribed burn, which was started on September 30, was declared a wild fire incident. Extreme fire weather conditions were forecast which led to the growth of the prescribed burn. In total 3435 acres were burned across the month of October. The Forest Service noted that 7 injuries or illnesses happened on this fire.

Wider weather episode

Extreme fire weather conditions were forecast for Oct 9 and 10 as northern California was caught between a ridge over the eastern Pacific and a trough over the Great Basin. This caused the pressure gradients to tighten over the county warning area, which lead to strong northerly and easterly winds. With these winds forecast, dry conditions in place, and fuels being primed a Red Flag Warning was issued for most of interior northern California. Fortunately no major wildfires resulted from this but a controlled burn got out of control and utility power lines did suffer from some wind damage.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 863131. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.