Wildfire — Central Sierra Foothills, California

2020-11-01 to 2020-11-30 · Central Sierra Foothills, California

Event narrative

The Creek Fire continued to show moderate fire behavior and slow growth through the first week of November. On November 7th and 8th a winter storm brought 9 to 13 inches of snow above the 7000 foot level. This put a damper on the fire but did not totally put it out. It was 85 percent contained as of November 20th. The only remaining heat detected was from isolated large logs which continue to smolder as they burn into the wet snow. Surrounded by snow and granite, managers were confident that the fire will not progress further under winter conditions. Due to not being able to put a containment line all the way around the fire, it will not be fully contained until there is a season ending event, likely in December. Final acreage was 379,895 acres. Total cost of containment was $193.5 million.

Wider weather episode

The Creek fire started at 633 pm PDT on September 4th (Labor Day Weekend) in the vicinity of Big Creek, California near the town of Shaver Lake. The fire was in an area of very heavy tree mortality in the Sierra National Forest. The fire had explosive grown on September 5th and 6th under excessive heat and low humidity, but not much wind. The fire became plume dominated on the 5th and column collapses were noted by AlertFire Cameras late on the 5th within the extremely unstable environment. Damaging fire whirls occurred just north of Mammoth Pool with ground survey estimated winds at 115-125 mph, and near Huntington Lake with patterns indicating winds of 90-107 mph. By the evening of September 6th, the fire fire had grown to 73,278 acres. Extensive smoke allowed the fire to slow some by Monday and Tuesday September 7th-8th, however the fore continued to grow, reaching nearly 153,000 acres by September 9th. Around this time, the complexity of the incident necessitated management of the fire to be split into a north zone and a south zone with 2 overhead teams assigned. The fire closed Highway 168 and may local roads and there were evacuations of as many as 45,000 people. Hundreds of people were rescued by California National Guard helicopters from the Mammoth Pool area and also from the China Peak ski resort. Hot ands dry conditions under strong high pressure continued throughout the remainder of September with extensive smoke often hampering air operations. By the end of September the fire had burned 307,051 acres and had destroyed 853 structures and damaged 64 others. Cost of containment was $106 Million. The fire continued to grow by an average of 2000 acres a day throughout October under warm than normal conditions and low humidities and a couple of offshore wind events. The fire reached 379,571 acres by the end of November.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 924304. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.