July 13, 2008, about 1:33 pm.This pushpin in the middle of this MODIS image is the middle of MIRA (The Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy) Observatory's property and the crosshairs below and to the right of the pushpin is to the right of the MIRA Observatory buildings and weather reporting station.
While MIRA's personnel may have gotten valuable equipment - like the telescope - out last week (previous post, where I describe seeing them broken down at the side of the road on the CV Village side of Cachagua Grade), the Observatory itself, which appears to have two structures - shown here surrounded by a red oval fire perimeter line - may be in doubt. Clearly, it's being defended by fire crews.
The interesting thing is that MIRA's Oliver Weather Observing Station is still reporting data (every 5 minutes) and it's quite interesting.
Windspeed is tracked and graphed over the past 24 hours... VERY informative, since at about 1:30 am the wind peaked at 31 mph. Temperature and Humidity are also tracked, as is wind direction for the last 4 hours.
Might want to visit the weather observing station now and then via the web to see what's cookin'.
Posts
4 comments:
Hi,
Actually, the MIRA observatory is just to the left of your crosshairs and the weather data come from the north side roof of the building. These data have been publicly available for some time and will continue to be so they may be helpful to folks in less interesting times.
Bruce Weaver
Bruce,
Thanks for the update! I simply plotted the data for the Oliver Station from the coordinates on the Oliver page and pasted them in to Google Earth, and that's where it pegged the crosshairs.
For "macroview" purposes - larger map views - I put the pushpin between the buildings, not knowing which was which!
Thanks once again! The data is fun to check on.
Any news on the status of the buildings yet?
Best,
Kelly
Since InciWeb is so spotty, I just grabbed the 1pm Sunday update while I could. Copied below FYI.
Feel free to delete this post if it takes up too much room.
Basic Information
Incident Type Wildland Fire
Cause Lightning
Date of Origin Saturday June 21st, 2008 aprox 12:56 PM
Location 5 miles south of Big Sur
Incident Commander Dietrich / Mcgowan / Hutc
Current Situation
Total Personnel 2,199
Size 117,940 acres
Percent Contained 61%
Estimated Containment Date Wednesday July 30th, 2008 aprox 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved 4 Chaparral (6 Feet) Timber and slash in higher areas. Heavy dead loading from sudden oak death in the Tan Oak.
Fire Behavior West Zone: Fire behavior was moderate with low rates of spread, some group tree torching, short range spotting as a result of increased humidity below 3,500 feet. Fire is smoldering within the community of Big Sur. East Zone: Fire burning in fuels that have not burned in thirty plus years, with heavy dead and downed fuels. Fire very active in such fuels and very resistant to control even in the night hours due to poor over night humidity recovery.
Significant Events West Zone: Reopening of Highway 1 with speed restrictions. A reduced speed zone has been established from the intersection of Highway 1 and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park south to Square Black Rock. East Zone: Mandatory Evacuations of Upper Cachagua. Voluntary Evacuations of Upper Cachagua, Paloma Creek, Lower Carmel Valley Road and Arroyo Seco.
Outlook
Planned Actions West Zone: Continue firing on the north containment line from Big Pines and moving east as conditions permit. Continue mop-up. East Zone: Contain and extinguish spot fire in the White Oak area. Hold and improve current lines and provide structure protection as needed. Continue firing operation from Chews Ridge to the east and south as weather conditions permit.
Growth Potential High
Terrain Difficulty High
Remarks The Basin Complex is in unified command with the USFS Dietrich (west), McGowan (east), CalFire R. Hutchinson, Commander Oakley of the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, Big Sur VFB and Mid-Coast FB. Commander Oakley, Monterey County Sheriff's Department has been added as a Unified Commander.
Weather
Current Wind Conditions 23 (gusts) mph S
Current Temperature 70 degrees
Current Humidity 32 %
Hi Kelly,
I'd say you got pretty close. The upper building is the fire tower, the lower pair is the observatory. Google Earth has been steadily improving their coordinates - they were really bad a couple months ago.
Friday afternoon everything looked like it was under control and the engines and most of the crews left. Then Saturday, about 10am, there was a big run up from the southwest that our caretaker, Ivan, had to deal with with our fire pump and hose. I'm not clear if that was a firing attempt gone amok or wild fire. In any case, due to everyone's efforts - bulldozer work, fire crews, and our caretaker, we seem to have come through the week relatively unscathed.
There isn't much fuel left for it to make a third run at us but then, we've already been surprised once.
Thanks for asking.
Bruce
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