Firefighting Planes Nearly Hit by Airborne Tree Branches

Aircraft busy fighting fires in Yosemite National Park are facing the usual risks, including high terrain, smoke-limited visibility, and risk of midair collisions, but this year in the High Sierra, they are also facing a most unusual risk, airborne tree limbs, some of them quite large, big enough that pilots are reporting near misses with the flying vegetation. According to a story on Yahoo News, pilots are very concerned about the safety of flight because of the airborne tree parts. The science behind the phenomenon is well understood. With particularly intense fires, the rising air currents carry debris with them, the stronger the updrafts the greater the weight and size of the objects it can lift up a thousand feet or more, until the updrafts decrease in intensity enough that the objects fall back to earth.