Fire attack is a 24 hour operation, day and night. Aircraft typically won’t fly at night but the fire activity usually slows at night as temps go down and relative humidity go up. A lot of back burns and firing operations happen at night when the weather holds the fire in check some more.

[–] abraham_linksys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Honest question: why not fight it at night? Would be cooler with the sun down, and the target glows in the dark to the naked eye. No light no problem? I'm sure it's more complex than that

[–] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

In the 1970s, the US halted aerial firefighting activities at night due to cost and safety concerns. I know some states made narrow exceptions, but not sure about California. A good read on this https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/long-read/nighttime-firefighting

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