image: The Skunk Fire which began as a lightning strike on Saturday, April 19 is currently 31,167 acres large including fire growth and back burns. view more
Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team
The Skunk Fire which began as a lightning strike on Saturday, April 19 is currently 31,167 acres large including fire growth and back burns.The fire continues to move in a north westerly direction and an easterly direction towards ponderosa pine forest. South and North side of the fire is contained. The terrain for this fire is steep with scattered boulders making firefighting more difficult. The entire fire is currently 44% contained and full containment is expected by Friday, May 23, according to Inciweb.org.
The National Weather Service has forecast maximum temperatures between 78-93 degrees for May 20. Southwest winds around 10 -15 miles and increasing to 20 mph in the afternoon with gusts to 30 mph. Ridge tops wind will be southwest 20-25 mph.
NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on May 19, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from inciweb.org.