Dixie Fire Update: Dire Weather Warning For Firefighters: 'We Are Warm, We Are Dry, We Are Unstable'
PLUMAS COUNTY (CBS SF/AP) -- Fire crews continued to struggle with difficult weather conditions overnight and faced the threat of afternoon thundershowers in the Lassen Volcanic National Park Thursday as the Dixie Fire grew to 510,227 acres nearly a month after it was first sparked.
The Dixie Fire -- which started July 13 and is the largest wildfire burning in the nation -- continues to threaten a dozen small communities in the northern Sierra Nevada, even as the fire's southern end was mostly corralled by fire lines.
According to the latest Cal Fire update, the blaze has burned 510,227 acres (over 797 square miles) and stands at 30% containment. Over 1,100 structures have been destroyed. Many of those structures were homes in the nearly obliterated town of Greenville that the fire swept through last week.
The fire has extended across four Northern California counties: Plumas, Butte, Lassen and Tehama counties.
In the western zone of the fire, overnight temperatures stayed warm with minimal relative humidity recovery while an inversion kept smoke over the fire with pockets of clear sky.
Cal Fire said windy conditions will persist in the area with high pressure building Thursday and possible thunderstorms moving through the area. Crews planned to reinforce control lines and aggressively mop up hotspots while provide structure protection in the fire perimeter.
"We are looking at a change in the pattern," Cal Fire meteorologist Joe Groswald told firefighters at their morning briefing. "The high pressure is still going to be over us, but we've gotten mid-level moisture that we have gone in and put in some thunderstorms into the forecast. We are warm, we are dry, we are unstable."
Groswald said there was a good chance that thunderstorms could impact the northern zone of the fire.
"The thing that is going to drive this is the smoke. If we do bust through this smoke, we are going to see some plumes. No doubt in my mind the atmosphere is ripe for it," Groswald added. "The area is going to be from the lake [Lake Almanor] into Lassen. This area appears to be the sweet spot for those thunderstorms."
Damage inspection teams continue to make progress surveying areas where fire activity has diminished.
In the eastern zone of the fire, dozers were utilized to expand containment lines. Fire activity peaked Wednesday afternoon, leading to additional resources being brought into the area around Wilcox Valley. The intensity of the fire forced firefighters to pull out from direct attack, but crews continued to construct indirect lines.
The limited available fuels in the Sheep fire scar were helping slow the fire's spread with control lines are being constructed across the fire scar, connecting from Hamilton Mountain to near Lone Rock.
Crews have cut thousands of acres of new fire lines aimed at preventing the fire from spreading. Officials believe the fire lines created on the blaze's southern side will hold the fire at bay there, but the fire's future is unknown. Cal Fire currently has
"We don't know where this fire is going to end and where it's going to land. It continues to challenge us," said Chris Carlton, supervisor for Plumas National Forest.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency for northern Shasta, Trinity and Tehama counties. The declaration frees up state resources to help fight fires in those counties and give assistance to residents affected by he blazes.