Friday, September 11, 2015 - Combined Plumes from the Rough and Butte Fires and Weekend Outlook

Lots of activity on the Butte fire today, over 50,000 acres of growth.  VIIRs satellite heat detections (red dots are the most recent, within six hours of this screenshot, refreshed at 1:45 P.M.).

Hazard Mapping System analysis shows a large, high density plume of smoke, which joined with the plume from the Rough fire to darken the skies this evening over much of the Sierra Nevada foothill area.

Not all this smoke was at the surface...Auburn and other sites north were relatively clean, compared to sites to the south (e.g., Murphys)

(http://smoke.airfire.org/monitoringReport)

This pattern looks like it will continue until Sunday, when smoke start to get more dispersed and pushed slightly more north and west (http://viewer.smoke.airfire.org/run/standard/CANSAC-2km/2015091112/), ahead of an incoming weather system next week.