SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. - The tenacious Gifford Fire continues to burn in remote and rugged wilderness areas in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
As the fire nears its two week mark, firefighters are encouraged their efforts to control and eventually extinguish what is now California's largest wildfire this year will soon receive a boost from Mother Nature.
"Today it's going to be hot and dry still," said Caleb Grunzke, Gifford Fire Incident Meteorologist. "There will be some gusty ridgetop winds out of the northwest, but after today it will start cooling down with cool temperatures expected this weekend and that will greatly alleviate the elevated fire weather potential that we've been seeing for the last several days."
Recently, temperatures on the fire lines have reached into the triple digits, and combined with low humidity numbers that have reached as low as single digits, it's presented difficult challenges in the overall firefighting operation.
However, with a cooler temperatures and raising humidities expected to arrive as soon as Thursday, crews are welcoming better conditions in the coming days.
"We are very optimistic about the weather improving for our area," said Grunzke. "After the last several days we've been through very elevated fire weather conditions, so this weather that's coming will help us decrease the fire activity that's going on right now, and keep it a better under control."
As of Wednesday evening, containment on the Gifford Fire rose to 41%, continuing a slow and steady climb in percentage that has been increasing almost daily.
"Containment is going up," said Rich Eagan, Gifford Fire Public Information Officer. "Acreage is going up a little bit. Part of that is due to the fact of the defensive tactic that we're doing by backfiring, so if you do see a lot of smoke in the air, that's what it's from. No need to get alarmed. Hopefully we're going to get this thing out pretty soon."
Earlier this week, firefighters initiated a backburning operation to help attack the blaze, in essence to fire the fire with fire.
"It seems to be going very favorable for us," said Eagan. "They're going to continue today and today is going to be a big day for us as far as backfiring goes. The next 48 hours should give us a good idea of where we're at exactly on this fire."
Helping the operations so far has been cooperative winds for the most part. Outside of occasional gusts and an extended period of high winds last week the helped push the fire north, winds have been relatively calm.
"There have been times where it's been gusty or gusts up to 25, maybe 30 miles an hour," said Grunzke. "But it hasn't been actually that that bad as compared to what can you sometimes happen around here with, like the Santa Ana winds or winds nearby where they get up to 50 to 55 miles per hour, so it hasn't been that bad for this fire. Looking forward in the forecast, there does not seem to be any signals of strong wind events over the next few days."
The Gifford Fire began on Friday, Aug. 1 alongside Highway 166 about 20 miles east of Santa Maria, and so far, has burned 130,440 acres in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
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