Christie Mountain/Heritage Hills

[Drip_Torch]

A closer look at the fire history on the ground.

I mapped out the area with the historic perimeters and overlaid the current detections.

Double checked and yes this current fire's footprint has burned numerous times in the last 100 years.

I won't call this an exhaustive list, but here's what I found for previous fire history within this burn area:

368 - 1925 - 6807 HA
519 - 1926 - 3744 HA
504 - 1939 - 43 HA
KA0782 - 1971 - 1649 HA
K50087 - 1994 - 4919 HA
K50205 - 1998 - 12.9 HA
K50223 - 2010 - 15.6 HA

[Pete Podoski]

Please discuss this fire only, and nothing off topic relating to generic fire prevention issues. Thanks.

[Nooby]

Well we just had quite the downpour here for about 5-10 minutes. Probably not enough but I'm sure it helped and lots of people are breathing a little easier.

[JagXKR]

Not only did we have the short rain shower but the wind is calm in places. Huge difference!
Has changed to north westerly on some of the flags I can see through my binoculars. The southerly wind storm is over......hopefully.

[Noisy Boater]

Things must be improving. I saw at least 6 fire trucks heading back to there town halls. Thanks boys n girls. Travel safe.

[cyruslosco66]

good to see this fire is not as bad as it could have been

[Miss Maggie]

Does anyone know if there is satellite imagery on the internet that will show the area of the fire? Im curious to see how far east it has travelled.

[blueliner]

good to see this fire is not as bad as it could have been

They dodged a very big bullet on Friday with that very powerful windstorm .
Great job by all the firefighters, pilots and ground crews etc

[Drip_Torch]

Does anyone know if there is satellite imagery on the internet that will show the area of the fire? Im curious to see how far east it has travelled.

Yes, but it doesn't show much.

Here's a shot with some false colour to show the area burned. Clouds managed to obscure the image and it really doesn't reveal anything beyond that shown in the current map.

VIIRS Band detection suggests the hotspot on the western flank above the vineyard continues to be the hottest area on the fire, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that change with the next update.

[Miss Maggie]

Thanks Driptorch. I finally found the fire perimeter map on the BC Wildfire website - not sure how i missed it before.

With all the wind we’ve had during this fire I’m surprised it didn’t go further east.

[Drip_Torch]

You're welcome. I probably should have given you the link to the map, but I assumed it was being widely distributed. About 4 hours after that post, the VIIRS did update and show some heat on the eastern flank, but it seems they've had a handle on it. There hasn't been much in the way of useful satellite shots, but I do expect there will be one or two in the next few days. If I find a good view of the fire area I'll be sure to pass it along.

I see they've updated the status to "being held" and that's good news.

[Drip_Torch]

Here's the latest available shots from Sentinel 2. If you look really close you can see some of the retardant lines dropped on the hillside. I did lose some of the detail compressing it for Castanet forums.

False colour used to highlight the extent of the burned area.

I'm throwing in a Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) graphic too.

The NDMI is a normalized difference moisture index, that uses NIR and SWIR bands to display moisture. The SWIR band reflects changes in both the vegetation water content and the spongy mesophyll structure in vegetation canopies, while the NIR reflectance is affected by leaf internal structure and leaf dry matter content but not by water content.

[JagXKR]

Such good news.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton ... n-wildfire

The final evacuation alerts for the properties nearest to the Christie Mountain wildfire have been lifted.

As of Thursday afternoon, 319 properties in the Heritage Hills neighbourhood south of Penticton are free and clear from evacuation alerts, after previously being evacuated and let back in on Tuesday.

The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen said the State of Local Emergency issued Aug. 18 has now also been cancelled.

[Miss Maggie]

Pretty windy out there this morning and the fire has jumped the retardant line.

https://mobile.twitter.com/BCGovFireInf ... 5391416321

[ferri]

Fire jumps retardant line
https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton ... tern-flank