Fire Lookout Life: The "Lightning Bust"

[Bo Zarts]

In the southeast high-desert corner of Oregon's Deschutes National Forest, "dry" lightning almost always resulted in fires. I staffed East Butte fire lookout in that critical southeast corner of the forest for five years.

This was a typical dry lightning day in late July of 2010. The "scout" clouds of the morning had warned me, and by the time they had coalesced into a few formidable high desert thunderstorms in the early afternoon, there were fire crews and other resources in place to join the battle. Forewarned is forearmed.

A "dry" thunderstorm's precipitation is mostly in the form of virga. Virga is precipitation that evaporates before reaching the ground. Here, virga is visible in the distance from the southeast corner of East Butte lookout. The virga was far enough away for me to safely watch for lightning and smoke from the catwalk of the thirty-foot high timber tower.

Within minutes of this photo, spidery lightning began to dance around the sky over the southern boundry of the Deschutes National Forest. My AFMO (assistant fire management officer) had climbed the rickety steps up into the very tall, un-manned Fox Butte lookout (behind my binoculars) to provide cross azimuths on any fire starts. And those fire starts came soon after the lightning began.

I forget how many fires we had on this particular day. But I do recall that it was a hectic afternoon with aviation assests on the scene and calls ordering up additional fire crews (engines, hand crews, hot shots).

Although the fire fighting efforts went into the evening, none of the fires ever got over about five acres. Worst thing was that when my duty time got extended into the night, I was too busy to cook so I had to eat MREs. Ugh. But I was on overtime pay.

East Butte Fire Lookout
Deschutes National Forest, Oregon
July 30, 2010
©2023 Bo Zarts Studio

[elleng]

1. THANK YOU, again and always.

[democrank]

2. Your photographs are such gifts.

Thank you~

[blm]

3. Another stunner.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. wow.

[KPN]

5. Really enjoyed this. Especially having worked wildfire in

some of the neighboring and nearby NFs. Thx for sharing.

[AndyS]

6. We civilians only hear of the ones that get out of control and burn thousands of acres.

It is hard for me to conceive of the damage that might happen if you were't on post and the fire fighets weren't on standby to extinguish the "little fires" before we even are notified.

Thank you for your service, both for the ribbon in your sig line and for those days on look out.

Oh, and the photography is breath taking as well. Thanks for that too.

[marble falls]

7. Just wondering when you were going to post again!

[WestMichRad]

8. Nicely informative, thanks!

And I learned a new word, virga. Used it in wordle and nailed it in 3 today thanks to virga!

[MLAA]

9. I'm still hoping for a coffee table book of your glorious look out photos.

[okaawhatever]

10. Thank you for your photos/stories. Did u have a 4 legged companion? Saw the brush.