Palomar Mountain News

Would YOU like to be out at High Point during a Thunderstorm?  What an adventure!  Two great messages tell of the day.   The first is from Don Stouder, the volunteer manning the tower during Monday’s thunderstorms.  I had a questions about his message when he said he was ‘in the porta-potty when the rain started … but glad he had taken the HT’.  Thinking it was a typo for TP, (LOL  🙂  I confirmed with Brad who cleared it up:

From Brad: << HT is an acronym for ‘Handy Talkie’ or hand held radio. We have a base radio as primary in the lookout and 2 hand helds as back up along with a cell phone. I am so amazed at what our volunteers are doing when faced with a high stress situation that includes lightning and a bunch of professional firefighters and pilots that want to talk to us. We seem to be getting the job done…now we just need some more lookouts to open! >>

Enjoy reading the Thunderstom Lessons Learned at High Point!

Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 9:03 PM

Subject: Lessons Learned

 Now that I have finished the two-hour journey home from the tower, and relaxed with a glass of wine and some dinner, I thought I would share a bit about my day. It was my first really busy day in the tower, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun 🙂

The day began quietly enough, and I thought I might get to finish a book I brought with me. Around noon, the cumulonimbus clouds began to form, even though the forecast was for a “slight” chance of thunderstorms. The rain began about 10 miles north, and then the biggest and darkest of the clouds decided to park itself right over Palomar Mountain. By 2pm, the National Weather Service was issuing a flash flood warning for “a large, stationary, and powerful storm cell directly over Palomar Mountain”. The rain lasted for about an hour, some of the strongest I have ever seen. I was happy the roof didn’t leak, and I was also happy to watch this unfold and record/report lightning strikes as needed. But Battalion 31 was having none of that; he radioed frequently for weather updates. The first time was right before the rain started, and while I was in the Porta-Potty. Lesson One: make sure you take the HT with you when you leave the tower. Thanks for that lesson, Richard!

Lesson Two: If you forget to take the flag down before the storm starts, leave it alone. I briefly considered rescuing it from the rain, but then I decided that grabbing on to a tall metal pole with a storm cell overhead was not my best play.

Lesson Three: The radio traffic to the tower was heavy and on two different frequencies; I finally set the HT to NIFC TAC 2 so I would not have to keep changing the frequency on the house radio. Saved me a lot of time and kept me in better contact. It was especially useful after the storm passed, as Air Attack 504 was in the air and using me to direct him to areas of potential strikes. Lesson Four: “Lightning Recon” means they want to fly over areas of potential strikes to check for fires, not look for active lightning. Took me a few minutes to figure that out. The pilots were especially interested in the Beauty Mountain/Iron Spring area, 060 degrees and 8 miles from the tower. The pilots told me that this is a very common area for lighting fires to start, and suggested we give it special attention during and after storms.

Of course about half way through all this, the “Ballena Fire” started near Witch Creek. This was dispensed with fairly quickly by Cal Fire. Lesson Five: We share several frequencies with Cal Fire, and they didn’t hesitate to call me once they knew I was in the tower.

Lesson Six: Don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions on the radio. Once I started doing this I was able to provide much better information to the people doing the asking. It also added to the fun; Air Attack 504 basically gave me a play by play of everything they were doing once they knew I was interested 🙂

As it turned out, I did not see a single ground strike. All the lightning was cloud to cloud. But I was very impressed with how seriously both the USFS and Cal Fire took this small storm. Very impressed indeed. And very proud that they treated me like a professional and expected the same in return.

Last lessons: the forest smells wonderful after a rain storm. The drive out is wonderful too; no dust! The Bobcat even made a cameo appearance. Oh, and the hummingbirds think they own the place. One even landed on my hand 🙂

Happy Smoke Hunting,

Don Stouder

From: Brad Ells 

Don,

 Glad to hear you had one of the very unique experiences for our Lookout volunteers! I did not know we were having another big day with the weather until one of my co-workers pointed out the cumulus clouds over the San Bernardino’s this afternoon. I saw the remains of your storm as I drove south on I-15 from Corona this evening.

 Your experience and good work today again points out the value of the fire detection work we do at High Point. Now you get a lightning bolt on your name tag too!

 Your work with Forest Service and Cal Fire units points out that we can act as a coordinating station during such an event. We are staffed every day but Friday this week…anyone want to jump in??? We should continue to observe the area for any potential ‘sleeper’ smokes that may pop up from a ground strike many days later.

 We can potentially see some of this monsoonal moisture pattern through Mid-September…just in time for the Santa Ana winds to kick up.

 The High Point rain gauge picked up 3/10’s of an inch today. The NOAA station at the Observatory shows 14/100’s of an inch.

 Thanks again for your fantastic work today…you certainly deserve the glass of wine…or two!

 Hmmm…now just think what we could do if we had 3 or 4 more lookouts open in the county…

Regards,

Brad