'Tis the season...

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Wildfire season, that is. We had a bit of excitement here in my town yesterday as a wildfire broke out along the stretch of highway north of town. The conditions weren't very favorable and within a couple of hours it had grown to about 2,100 acres and forced the evacuation of a few communities. We could see the plume of smoke from our house, and got to see several engine crews from other cities arrive at the fire station next to the park. The helicopter shown in the linked news article flew directly over us on the way to either the airport or to fill up at one of the local lakes. By the time we left to run some errands in the afternoon, they seemed to have it pretty well under control. The section of highway that had been closed was reopened, and it seemed like the crews working the south edge of the fire were just mopping up hot spots. Several buildings burned, including at least two homes, but they were able to limit this one to about 5,100 acres in the end. The last major one in the area was the Goodwin Fire that burned about 25,000 acres in 2017. The big difference between the two is the type of fuels available; the Goodwin Fire burned through mountainous areas heavy in Ponderosa pine and chaparral, while yesterday's Viewpoint Fire was limited to the grasslands north of town.