The Redding area will continue to experience smoky conditions from the thousands of acres of forest burning in Northern California.
In Modoc County a series of lightning fires continue to grow at an alarming rate, and are producing their own weather with pyro-cumulus formations and active to extreme fire behavior. Fires that totaled less than 10,000 acres Friday have grown together to form several fires totaling around 74,000 acres. Overall containment of all the Modoc Lightning Complex fires is around 35%. The largest is the difficult to access Steele Fire located north and east of Clear Lake Reservoir. Mandatory evacuations are in effect for the Rush Creek area. The Cove Fire northwest of Adin doubled in size overnight and Highway 299 is threatened.
A series of five fires about 7 miles southwest of Happy Camp have combined to become the Clear Fire, which has burned about 3,250 acres of steep heavily forested terrain, still with just 10% containment.
A storm last Tuesday started eight fires in the Six Rivers National Forest 20 miles north of Orleans dubbed the Orleans Complex, which total about 1500 acres with no significant containment. The fires are spreading into an area that’s increasingly steep and thick with timber and mountain brush.
The Island Fire 14 miles west of Etna is around 1300 acres and is mostly being allowed to run it’s course as it grows by 20 to 50 acres a day.