Fire in El Portal / Yosemite NPS

So that would mean there's no way to get to Yosemite Valley from the east (hwy 395)???

Yep.

“Major road closures include Big Oak Road, which is a continuation of Highway 120, at the Highway 140 junction all the way up to Crane Flat gas station. It will remain closed all day Sunday, El Portal fire officials said.”

Read more here: Fresno Bee

To track the situation Look Here

Here's an updated article from the LA Times with photos and a unique twist – someone was flying a drone I guess for info purposes but fire officials feel it poses a threat to firefighting aircraft;

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-firefighters-northern-california-wildfires-20140728-story.html

Link for 28 July 2014

Anyone know if the smoke is drifting over to the Mammoth Area???
Heading into Thousand Island Lake on Thursday but would change if there is smoke.

thanks,
Billy

There was quite a bit of smoke in Tuolumne and over in Lee Vining as of yesterday. I got a view south to June Lake and Mount Lyell and it was smoky there too, I'd assume no different in Mammoth. The smoke was maybe a 2.5 out of 5, affected visibility significantly but no ash and it didn't smell too bad.

Thanks Andrew… having asthma, this is very important information.

Billy

There are webcams at Mammoth http://mammothweather.com/live-current-conditions/live-mammoth-webcam/

but the site doesn't seem to be working right now, at least from my computer. The one picture displayed from this morning looks very clear towards Mammoth mountain.

And this site displays particulate matter counts on a graph a ways down the page:

http://www.gbuapcd.org/data/mammoth/

I found this very helpful last year during the Aspen fire. Particulate levels were close to 150 at the peak times of the day in Mammoth at that time! A peak of 30 doesn't look so bad in comparison…

d k….
Not sure how to translate any particulate number into what is normal or bad…
And how does it translate into smell???
Can you have a high particulate number and no smell?
Can you have a low particulate number and bad smell???

thanks,
Billy

I'm leaving in a week for the JMT, any guess as to how I'll be affected by this?

Mitchell… where are you starting??? Good to specify as the end points are 200 miles apart :)

If you start in Yosemite and the conditions are like now, you will likely be breathing a lot of smoke… especially in the valley and up… maybe until you can get to the east side…

But who can say what it will be in a week… worse? better? unknown.

Billy

Click on the light blue camera icons for a current view: Caltrans QuickMap.

Oh, right. I'm going SOBO, so it looks like I'm starting right in the major smoke area. Crap.

Oh Shite! A new one, "dark hole" (crap that name doesn't sound good at all) started yesterday nearly on top of my White Wolf starting point in 2 weeks! :-(

(sounds of me huffing and puffing to blow it out)

And another south of Mammoth… called the ranger and they said it was blowing into Mammoth this afternoon…

Billy

Called Mammoth Ranger this morning. They said it was smokey in Mammoth due to a new fire just SW of Mammoth…

Called the Bishop Ranger and asked where on east side of Sierra I could backpack without smoke… he said nowhere…

Billy

I heard on KQED radio this morning that Big Oak Flat road opened last night.

I'm in Mammoth right now. It was very smokey with very poor visibility in the afternoon. It seems to have slightly improved at night. I'll see if it's clear at all tomorrow morning.

I've been obsessively checking the particulate matter graphs for Mammoth for the past few days – I was supposed to go up for a week starting tomorrow but have decided not to go, at least not yet. I was there last year during the Aspen fire, and though hiking days were fine (we did day hikes where the smoke wasn't), sleeping in the campground at night was pretty bad in the middle of the night – I woke up coughing one night.

The graphs yesterday and today have looked pretty bad – last count was in the "unhealthy" range:

http://www.gbuapcd.org/data/mammoth/

scroll down to see particulate matter counts

I'm hoping that things might be better by the middle of the week, when I'm supposed to do a short backpack trip there with some friends. This is bumming me out…

Billy, here's the explanation of particle counts:

Air quality was much better today in Mammoth. Did not smell any smoke until 1:30 at Devil's Postpile but out of the valley there is no smoke smell. I plan to hike in tomorrow up to Ediza and Thousand Island and bail if needed.

Weather report this morning in the Bay Area mentioned heavy rain and flash flood concerns in the Sierra. Wasn't at all specific about where in the Sierra, but some rain would help.

We walked through smoke and ash from the Rim fire last summer and my partner for our trip this weekend to Tuolumne Meadows area threatens not to go if it is going to be like that again.

Dunno how things are near Mammoth now, but this weekend there was zero smoke further south in Goddard Canyon, despite the French Fire.

Sorry for the late reply, just got back from 5 days in Mammoth around Ediza and Thousand Island lakes. There was no smoke at all. It stormed Monday, Wednesday and Thursday which probably helped. Back in town, there was a faint smell of smoke.