21-Oct-2018 -- Almost two weeks earlier, while driving from the San Francisco Bay Area down to southern California, I was surprised to see that this area - to the west of Interstate 5 - had recently been scorched by a grass fire. I later learned, from an Internet search, that the fire had burned on 6 August 2018, two months ago. Although I had visited this point twice before (including the most recent visit, in 2011), I had to revisit this point during my drive home to see what had happened (and also get a drone’s-eye view).
Once again, I parked at the locked gate on Milham Road, west of the town of Kettleman City, and next to the I-5 freeway. This is 1 mile from the point. (Unlike some earlier visitors, I didn’t see any “No Trespassing” signs at the gate; Millham Road - although gated closed here - appears to be a public road.) Hiking westward along Milham Road, I could see that it had served as a fire break. All of the ground south of Milham Road - including the Degree Confluence Point - had been scorched; the ground north of Milham Road remained untouched.
Wildfires are common in California. After my earlier visits to 41N 122W and 38N 120W, this was my third visit to a California Degree Confluence Point that had recently been consumed by a wildfire.
Here is a remote-controlled aerial video of this confluence point.