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Yosemite Fire Weather Pattern Growing Challenge For Firefighters

Jacqueline Jackson |
August 25, 2013 | 4:23 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Yosemite Wildire
Yosemite Wildire
The Yosemite National Park fire has grown since Saturady to burn 133,000 acres of land as of Sunday and is only 7 percent contained. The fire, which began eight days ago has been difficult for firefighters to contain due to various weather conditions.

See Also: Yosemite Fire At 125K Acres, SF Under State of Emergency

The ridge winds are expected to increase this afternoon and throughout the night which could place a hamper on the efforts of the firefighters. According to the L.A. Times meteorologists Kevin Hanford said, "it really looks like the weather is not going to be terribly cooperative in the next three days." This due highly to winds that could gust up to 30 mph in the area surrounding the fire.

Over 2,000 firefighters have been working to control the fire surrounding Yosemite. The main entrance to the park and various popular locations including Yosemite valley, Glacier Point and Tuolumne Meadows were open Sunday.

The Rim fire threatened San Francisco's power supply when it damaged the Hetch Hetchy reservoir's water and power system. Since this discovery Governer Jerry Brown has extended the state of emergency to include San Francisco. Since the reservoir was damaged The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission was forced to shut down two of its three hydroelectric power stations close to Hetch Hetchy.

Even with though the weather conditions will present difficulty containing the fire over the coming days meteorologists are reporting that within the text two to three days firefighters should be able to contain more of the fire.

Watch Footage From Yosemite Below:

Read more at the LA Times here.

Reach Executive Producer Jacqueline Jackson here. Follow her here.



 

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