Today Yosemite Fire began a prescription burn in the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias. As of 5pm the area treated consisted of 70 acres. This included 20 acres in unit 11 and the remaining 50 in unit 4. We are seeing a minor increase in fire behavior on the west hand line in unit 4 as it burns into the heavier dead and down fuels. There is currently moderate smoke production with smoke dispersal to the NE.
Tomorrow we are expecting the upcoming storm to bring significant rain and snow over Yosemite. This may be a "fire season ending event". With this, the Yosemite fires that are currently active may still smolder but will likely not produce much smoke. We expect to still see light, visible smoke on the Empire and Starr King fires.
Rain and snow will hamper prescribed fire efforts but will allow firefighters the ability to shift from wildfire management to prescribed fire management in the Mariposa Grove and to begin pile burning throughout the park. If conditions are too wet to do prescribed burning, fire crews will shift to thinning projects around developed and high risk areas.