The Ferguson Fire started on July 13, 2018 at 2136 PDT in the South Fork Merced River drainage, 10 miles north of Mariposa, CA in Sierra National Forest. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS HNX wrote it up.
The Ferguson Fire started on July 13, 2018 at 2136 PDT in the South Fork Merced River drainage, 10 miles north of Mariposa, CA in Sierra National Forest. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The fire started in an area that has steep, rugged terrain with scarcely any road access and a heavy presence of beetle-killed trees. On the morning of July 14, a heavy equipment operator was killed in a bulldozer rollover accident while constructing line in a steep canyon. The fire grew rapidly under hot and dry weather conditions. Strong inversions each day resulted in smoke issues in the fire area that limited aircraft operations. Smoke impacts from the fire spread throughout Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada and foothill and into the San Joaquin Valley. Highway 140 leading into Yosemite National Park was closed on July 14 and remained closed through August 14. Smoke impacts in Yosemite resulted in dangerous air quality causing Yosemite Valley and most of the eastern part of the park to be closed to visitors on July 25. This closure continued until August 14. Highway 41 leading into Yosemite from the south was also closed and did not reopen until August 24. Several communities just outside of Yosemite, including El Portal, Foresta, and the park employee housing at Rancheria Flat were subject to evacuations. From July 24 to 31, additional evacuations and repopulations of other areas continued to occur. On July 29, another tragic accident occurred when a tree fell, hitting and killing a firefighter. The weather moderated on August 6, which gave firefighters the opportunity to reinforce containment lines, mop up hot spots, and complete firing operations to keep the fire from spreading further into Yosemite National Park. The closure of Yosemite National Park for nearly three weeks had local and global impacts on those who had planned to travel to visit during that time. Economically, businesses were impacted in the gateway communities who depend on summer tourist season to sustain them through the year. |By August 18, the fire was contained and had burned 96,901 acres at a suppression cost of $117 Million. There were 19 injuries to firefighters and 10 structures destroyed.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Hanford, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 31, 5:07 PM PST, 6 hours 53 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service San Joaquin Valley - Hanford CA 607 PM PDT Tue Jul 31 2018 ...Updated for Air Quality... .SYNOPSIS...High pressure over the area will persist for a few more days, then weaken by Friday. A trough of low pressure will then move into Northern California and bring cooling temperatures and an increase in onshore flow. Winds will become stronger Thursday and Friday over the Sierra ridges as well as the Kern County Mountains and desert areas. With a shift to a more westerly flow aloft the threat of thunderstorms over the Sierra diminish then end by the weekend. && .DISCUSSION...With more instability, thunderstorms were quicker to form over the Sierra today and several significant weather advisories have been issued for strong thunderstorms. Meanwhile over the Kern County Desert areas storms have been slower to form however satellite and radar trends indicate things are about to get going. With the center of the big high pressure system to our east, the flow aloft is becoming more southwesterly especially near Yosemite however the converse is happening over Kern County where a pronounced easterly flow is noted. I expect the next few hours to get rather busy here with convection and possible warnings, etc. For tomorrow, models move the center of the anticyclone into Arizona and shift the flow over most of the area to either south or southwest. Still enough moisture in place for some Sierra thunder however that is where it should be confined. By Thursday the big change in the pattern begins as the high center weakens and moves even farther east as a strong trough of low pressure moves into Northern California. This will do two things...one is to usher in cooler air from the coast and secondly pretty much bring to an end the thunder threat in the Sierra. Temperatures will likely fall to below 100 degrees at many of the record setting locations like Fresno and Bakersfield. A couple to maybe more days of 90s in lower elevations seems likely especially this weekend. Winds will be on the increase over the area beginning later Thursday and especially over the higher Sierra and Kern County Mountains and desert on Friday and into Saturday as cooler air arrives and pressure gradients tighten up. Now for next week, latest operation GFS model now begins to rebuild and push westward the Desert Southwest High with the resulting monsoon flow. Very uncertain as to how this will work out as a cool trough for a more climatologically favored high and monsoon are both possible. I wouldn't bet on either solution right now...time will tell. && .AVIATION... Expect isolated thunderstorms across the Sierra Nevada Crest thru 06Z. Areas of MVFR visibility in haze and smoke will continue across the region for at least the next 24 hours, with local IFR visibility in smoke in the vicinity of the Ferguson Fire. The areas most affected will be Merced, Madera, Mariposa, and Tuolumne Counties. Otherwise, VFR conditions will prevail over the central CA interior during the next 24 hours. && .AIR QUALITY ISSUES... Please see AQAHNX for an Air Quality Alert On Wednesday August 1 2018... Unhealthy for sensitive groups in Fresno... Kern and Tulare Counties and Sequoia National Park and Forest. Further information is available at Valleyair.org && .CERTAINTY... The level of certainty for days 1 and 2 is high. The level of certainty for days 3 through 7 is medium. Certainty levels include low...medium...and high. Please visit www.weather.gov/hnx/certainty.php for additional information an/or to provide feedback. && .HNX Watches/Warnings/Advisories... NONE. && public...Dudley avn/fw...Dudley synopsis...Dudley update... Bollenbacher weather.gov/hanford
2 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
The Ferguson fire began on the Sierra National Forest just west of Yosemite, and spread to parts of the Stanislaus National Forest as well as into southern and western Yosemite National Park.
The Ferguson fire began on the Sierra National Forest just west of Yosemite, and spread to parts of the Stanislaus National Forest as well as into southern and western Yosemite National Park.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in California, August 2018
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 776252, 776253.