Wildfire — Sequoia Kings, California

2020-10-01 to 2020-10-31 · Sequoia Kings, California

Event narrative

The lightning caused Castle fire was discovered on the morning of August 19, 2020. It was located 25 miles north of Kernville on the Sequoia National Forest and just a few miles east of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. It grew slowly at first, reaching 2000 acres on August 23rd. The it grew rapidly to 15,000 acres by August 25th and to 35,674 acres by August 31st due to gusty southwest winds and low humidity. The rapid growth resulted in evacuations of several small mountain communities and the closure of Highway 190 and several other mountain roads. On August 29, the Castle fire was combined with the smaller Shot Gun fire to become the SQF Complex. The Shotgun fire was mainly sheltered at the bottom of a ravine and showed only small growth. The Castle fire continued to spread 4000 to 6000 acres on many days through September with the largest one day growth over 31,000 acres as above normal temperatures and low humidity persisted over the area along with very dry fuels.

The fire continued to grow in October as unseasonably warm temperatures along with low daytime humidity and poor overnight recovery continued over the area. A dry cold front moved through the fire area on October 25th with gusty southwesterly winds blowing down fire weakened trees. This was followed by strong offshore winds that dropped humidity into the single digits. By the end of October, the fire was 170,165 acres and was 80 percent contained. Cost of containment was $110.7 million and there were 228 structures destroyed.

Wider weather episode

The lightning caused Castle fire was discovered on the morning of August 19, 2020. It was located 25 miles north of Kernville on the Sequoia National Forest and just a few miles east of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. It grew slowly at first, reaching 2000 acres on August 23rd. It grew rapidly to 15,000 acres by August 25th and to 35,674 acres by August 31st. The rapid growth resulted in evacuations of several small mountain communities and the closure of Highway 190 and several other mountain roads. On August 29, the Castle fire was combined with the smaller Shot Gun fire to become the SQF Complex. The fire grew to 151,436 acres by the end of September and to 170,165 acres by the end of October.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 921476. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.