Red Flag Warning for Abundant Lightning and Dry Fuels!

Today is the ultimate day to be a Fire Lookout! Receptive fuels, low relative humidity, high based sky wide thunderstorms, and chance of wetting rain at 10% or lower, makes our morning brim with anticipation and excitement! In my life, few things rival a day like this. The local news station called this morning wanting to do a story on "Preparation for Lightning and Fire" from a lookouts perspective. I declined the interview, citing my need to be focused and not distracted. In addition, I've given numerous t.v. interviews throughout my career, and they never turn out the way I think they should have. So today, I give you my perspective! Aren't you so lucky?! Now don't turn off your computer just yet.

What does a lookout do to prepare for a day like this? We start by having everything we might need close at hand, and prepare to work long hours into the night. I have all my maps and map books ready, with lot's of scratch pads for notes. I have notes of where all relevant fire resources are and who is running each module. I have logged my current fire weather readings and take notes on the official forecast of my area. I plumb my firefinder, make sure the scope orientation is dead on (for the third time!), and take a couple of "practise" shots on known locations and check for similar readings. By this time, at this lookout, I've already had several hundred visitors hike up to see the view! Today I have a sign telling visitors that the Lookout is closed to public, and even so, many people disregard and come up anyway. Binoculars at hand. Handheld Forest Service radios charged and ready. Now is the time for me to get charged and ready. Coffee is just what I need!



How many lightning strikes have I seen start wildfires? Probably at least 100, perhaps twice that number counting distant fires. Every time it is exhilarating! Although it can be and usually is epic experience, it is also nerve wracking and exhausting. If I report ten fires four of which could threaten urban interface, I have to be spot on on my location. The margin of error is high, and especially so the greater the distance from my location. Expectation is that I lead a crew right into a fire, and more often than not that is what happens. But, in the height of the storm, when lightning rains down all over the forest, with multiple starts, the adrenaline flows freely and sometimes we make a mistake. We have to be extremely organized because we don't have time to analyze our decisions. They must be made at a moments notice and be right the first time. Often in our haste we read a false azimuth reading or switch numbers around or read the wrong scrap of paper. 

Many times a storm will track right over the top of the lookout tower. Although we have lightning rods and protection, the sound and pressure waves from thunder right overhead, often leave us on our lightning stool with slightly wet pants! The power right overhead can be very scary indeed. More often than not, strong erratic winds are common as the storm passes through giving fire a chance to get a good hold. Last week I was on the deck helping evacuate the butte of tourists when a bolt of lightning hit nearby starting a blaze. At exactly the same time, I got zapped from the metal rod holding the lookout's shutter. It was slightly stronger than a static electricity shock, it was no big deal, but I got inside the cab in a hurry! Tourist's couldn't get to their cars fast enough!

A Red Flag Warning also known as a Fire Weather Warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to inform area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition, and rapid propagation. After drought conditions, and when humidity is very low, and especially when high or erratic winds which may include lightning are a factor, the Red Flag Warning becomes a critical statement for firefighting agencies. These agencies often alter their staffing and equipment resources dramatically to accommodate the forecast risk. To the public, a Red Flag Warning means high fire danger with increased probability of a quickly spreading vegetation fire in the area within 24 hours.

Clouds are building. Dark bases developing. It looks like it is going to happen. Time to put the game face on. Keep in mind that wildfire is natures way of cleaning up the land for critters and plants. We need wildfire to keep our planet in check. Some fire we must keep at bay to protect our most valuble resouces, like watersheds, and migration zones. As man encroaches on forest lands it is very likely that fire will impact those communitys eventually.

Thank you for reading.  
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