Dome Fire Reaches 40 Percent Containment as Warmer Weather Returns
5,777 acres. Containment has risen from 17 to 40 percent in a week; Glacier Point Road is still closed.
The Dome Fire is 5,777 acres and 40 percent contained this morning, according to the incident's Thursday update. The interagency perimeter service also shows 40 percent. It grew about 190 acres since Wednesday.
Over the week the shape of this fire has changed. Last Friday the Park Service's count was about 4,258 acres and 17 percent. Containment has more than doubled since, while the fire added roughly 1,500 acres, nearly all of it on the north and northeast edges inside the 2017 Empire Fire burn. The park said Wednesday that containment is now outpacing growth.
The weather is turning against that. The cool, humid spell that held the fire down early in the week has ended, and the incident outlook calls for warming and drying with incremental increases in fire behavior. Managers still expect minimal growth, but say the risk is greatest if fire moves downslope to the west and southwest into heavier mixed conifer.
Glacier Point Road remains closed for smoke, visibility and firefighting operations, with no reopening date. The Four Mile and Panorama trails to Glacier Point are open to hikers. The Chilnualna Falls trail and the trails from its top toward Buena Vista and Crescent Lakes are closed, and Mariposa-Yosemite Airport was still closed to general aviation as of Monday. There are no evacuation orders and every other park road is open.
If Glacier Point is on your list this weekend, plan on the walk, not the drive, and check the park's conditions page and smoke outlook that morning.
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