McKinney Fire map

The AlertWildfire camera in Northern California on Herd Peak recorded the effect of what is likely outflow winds from a thunderstorm affecting smoke from the ...

At about 8:45 a.m. on Saturday the Klamath National Forest estimated it had burned approximately 18,000 acres. At about 5 a.m. Saturday the Siskiyou County Sheriff said it was approximately four miles from Scott Bar after having been very active all night. The McKinney Fire in Northern California eight miles south of the Oregon state line was very active throughout the night. The west side of the fire received the most precipitation, according to the radar, with much less on the east side. This current estimate from the Forest Service indicates it is 277 times larger. The McKinney Fire was mapped Sunday afternoon at 52,499 acres. Even the AlertWildfire cameras on mountain peaks late in the afternoon could see nothing but smoke. When it was mapped by an aircraft at 12:30 a.m. Sunday it had grown to 51,468 acres. But satellite imagery peeking through breaks in the clouds detected intense heat from the fires. It was very spotty, but some locations on the McKinney Fire received rain Saturday night between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday morning. Little progression was observed on the southeast side closest to Yreka. Sheriff’s office Spokeswoman Courtney Kreider said residences along Highway 96 in the Klamath River drainage burned.

The McKinney Fire has forced several evacuations in the area, and has burned at least 51,648 acres as of 8 a.m. Sunday, according to the United States Forest ...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday. Here's where the McKinney Fire and other California wildfires are burning.

The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday. Here's where the McKinney Fire and other California wildfires are burning. California fire map

The fire, which is burning in the Klamath National Forest, has scorched more than 51000 acres and is burning uncontrolled.

After helping scores of residents — including a 97-year-old World War II veteran — evacuate the Oak Ridge Mobile Estates in Yreka, Jeff McCauley, the mobile home park’s manager, prepared to hold out as long as possible. The fire ignited Friday afternoon near Highway 96 and McKinney Creed Road, southwest of the Klamath River, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in Siskiyou County. The flames raged unlike anything seen in California this year — sending a pyrocumulus cloud soaring as high as 50,000 feet into the air, meteorologists said. And then we’d be in for a fight.” Some parts of the fire — particularly to the east — were so smoky that planes and helicopters had trouble dropping water or fire retardant. “Somebody’s got to watch the place. The area has been hit by a series of thunderstorms in recent days that sparked several other nearby blazes in the Klamath National Forest, including the 500-acre China 2 Fire. Valerie Linfoot, 55, learned from her son – a fire dispatcher – that their house of 32 years in Klamath River had burned to the ground. And from Wednesday to Saturday, temperatures reached or exceeded 110 degrees — breaking or tying records three times. To the west and north, 63 hikers trekking between Mexico and Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail were rescued by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after the flames shut down a 110-mile stretch of the popular trail. And with scores of lightning strikes — some originating from its own billowing smoke plume — hitting around the central conflagration this weekend, firefighters warned thousands more to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. “My husband, he’s speechlessly devastated, because he spent 32 years trying to protect that forest.” And from what I’ve seen, it’s just decimated.