American (River Canyon) Fire in Tahoe National Forest

17 miles Northeast of Foresthill, between Foresthill and Colfax South of I-80 a fire broke out on Saturday afternoon. It is pure wilderness, not even people live there, and it spread going to 40 acres, then 1200 and is presumably bigger now. The smoke from it has been drifting down into my neighborhood. It was strong enough to wake me in the night. Not pleasant. Foresthill is mostly canyons, tributaries of the American River which eventually flows down past Auburn and joins Folsom Lake, the primary water supply for Sacramento. At this size, they should be listing it by square miles, which is about... two. There are 640 acres per square mile.

Despite its small size, its making a LOT of smoke, drifting up here, into Nevada City, and all the way to Downieville. The smoke is heavy, like fog and drifts visibly close to the ground. Ironically, it looks like people's landscape sprinklers can knock some of that out of the air, and the increase in humidity may get some of the rest. I wish it would rain just to kill the smoke. Yesterday, the wind came up and blew most of this smoke away by mid afternoon. I sincerely hope it will do that today too, though that will likely make the fire worse. I apologize for my selfishness but I am allergic to poison oak and the oils atomize in a wildfire like this and get into the smoke. It isn't very nice.

UPDATE Thursday 8/15/13: Still burning, up to 5000 acres, or 8 and a half square miles. The smoke is thinner, but still drifts around in the morning.

UPDATE 2 Monday 8/19/13: Still burning, now 15,000 acres, and the Swedes Fire south of Lake Oroville is now 2000 acres and growing. Smoke combined with thunderstorms and dry lightning has actually greatly increased fire danger for the next three days. It has been gray overcast and 30% humidity all day, with the sun never quite breaking through. It was sweaty and hot all night and while it did drop to 60'F this morning, we had to close up at 9 AM for smoke. I worry about friends near the Swedes Fire and hope they and their farm are okay.