Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HUNTINGTON, Emery County — The Trail Mountain Fire, which has ballooned to more than 14,500 acres, or nearly 23 square miles, as of Wednesday morning, is now 49 percent contained, according to officials.
The large wildfire started as a prescribed burn in central Utah on June 4, but it spread and turned into a wildfire days later after an unexpected thunderstorm moved through the area of the fire.
Fifteen crews with 583 personnel were battling the fire Wednesday, according to the Bureau of Land Management. Perhaps one of the more unsung heroes of the operation is the incident meteorologist at the scene. For the Trail Mountain Fire, that’s Mark Struthwolf.
The Emery County Sheriff’s Office explained Struthwolf’s role in a post. Struthwolf launches a weather balloon above the area where the fire is burning every day with a box that takes data and transmits it back to officials to collect and get an accurate forecast for the day.
The balloon helps officials know which way the wind is blowing, which is important in planning for a wildfire, but also temperature and relative humidity. The data is picked up every tenth of a second and transmitted back to Strutchwolf every 10 seconds. It allows him to see where moisture is in the atmosphere and also how strong the winds are.
Officials said this information goes forward to those in the field and who make tactical decisions, and it also goes to the National Weather Service for their computer models for Emery County.
He added one of the days the balloon launched sent back information indicating winds weren’t as strong as originally forecasted for the day and that an inversion had formed that would prevent a thunderstorm from forming.
“It’s really valuable for us to know what is going on up above us,” Sruthwolf said.
