Weather

Getting a bunch of raqin from Hurricane Laura up in Manchester, TN.  

For the past century the powers to be have aggressively attacked wildfires instead of letting fire fill it's place in the natural scheme of things.  Now the fuel loads are extreme, and fires are hotter than ever.

Starting to do some forest health projects over the last decade, but the environmental extremists object at every turn.  Add in climate change and it justs gets worse.

I sit on an advisory council for the Bureau of Land Management that covers NE Oregon and parts of Washington and Idaho.  We give input and comments on upcoming projects.  As part of that I keep pretty close tabs on the fire situation in the area.  Looks like we are going to have another couple of months of high fire danger..California's going to go well into Nov.

California's not know for having controlled burns to get rid of the underbrush and hasn't been for a long time.  You can see some of the fires they've had on some of the old 70s shows like Emergency.

Here we had a bad run eraly in the century with a large amount of fires.  We had departmentsd from all over the country to help and even had one county evacuated for a short time.  For weeks when you walked outside you could smell the smoke and sometime find ash on your car.  After that we had the great rodent migration, cats and other predators had a field day then.  Soon after that we got hit with a few major hurricanes.  I lost power for about two weeks but our new roof we just put on after the damage from the hail storms held.  The house across the street ended up with a tree going through his brand new roof.  Life can be interesting here in Florida but at least it's not cold.  It hasn't snowed here since the 90s and then we only got a few inches but a lot of broken PVC pipes.  Some people copmplain about the heat when it hits 90 or so, but I've had those temperatures below zero and it's much better in the heat.

California is a semi-arid desert with a landscape toupee maintained by water we don't gather in rain shed.

Climate change and resultant drought only makes it worse.

The reality of a wildfire makes politics irrelevant. Death and destruction needs no finger pointing but it does need planning.

Flooding on the Gulf Coast causes destruction way beyond ours so I would think a national interest in both would benefit us all.

Pray for the displaced and hurt.

Bill

The USA is a big place. Yes, some areas have a bad day/week, and others have nothing major change for year after year. 

Having been through the Cedar fire in 2003 where 350 homes burned in my neighborhood and again the Witch fire in 2007 I'm pretty sensitive to the fires and what people go through.  I will say that the subsequent response of increased equipment, increased cross service cooperation has made a difference.  In my little town of Ramona we have two S2-T fire bombers and OV-10 Bronco command aircraft stationed about 4 miles from my house.  What I have noticed is these birds go up for the smallest fires and put the phos-check on the flames in short order.  Which is great - but the wrong conditions such as the camp/paradise fire in 2018 - there is nothing that any fire team can do except help folks evacuate.  For those that don't live in Santa Ana enviroments - imagine an extremely hot, dry climate with 70 MPH sustained winds for days.

Like myself - many of us have moved up in the hills to enjoy the remote and beautiful lifestyle but there is a very big risk of loosing everything to fire when you move into the woods.  Much like the folks who choose to live on the big rivers in the country suffering from flood damage.

I do wish that California would spend more dollars clearing fire breaks and brush, but we have spent a lot of money on equipment and firefighters.  Can't tell you how well respected the CalFire crews are respected around here - they are local heros.

I've been evacuated 3 times and as recent as last year.  Sucks, but it's our choice to live where we live.  Make sure your insurance is paid and you have a go-bag.

Well Goldhammer, we have similar problems here. No clearing = disaster.

Hi Keavedog. I lived in the Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne for a number of years and fires were a threat every summer.One year they were waterbombing our street. But your right, we did not move because we chose to live there.

We're getting a serious monsoon storm here tonite! Winds, rain, thunder, and lightning for the past hour. Flash flood warning for the next three hours here... what a show!

We were out on a field trip in Eastern Oregon a few years ago.  New guy that had transferred in was telling us that his wife who was from the midwest ( tornado country ) was absolutely terrified of brush and wildfires, and earthquakes.

I told him at least out west, when you come home it's still in the same spot.  May be a pile of splinters from the quake, or a pile of ashes from the fire, but at least you don't have to start looking for it two states away.

I've been in hurricane country and wouldn't live there for love or money.... Same with tornado country.  All boils down to the devil you know and are used to.  It's all unpredictable once you get out of the center of the big metropolitan areas.  And even there can be iffy, like San Francisco with a quake or big city getting hit with flooding.

California has been between a rock and a hard place this year.

CalFire submitted requests for 20-30,000 acres of controlled burn.  CARB shot that down to 1100 acres.  Then, the plague hit.

The smart people ciphered it and said that California eeded about 1,000,000 acres torched in controlled burns.  Which sounds rather huge at first blush.  Except California has about 99 million acres of land area.  So, about 1% was the recoended burn area.

And, yes, the US is huge.  Let's look at Texas.  800 miles north to south and 800 miles east to west.  About  square miles.  And a population about the same as Australia (and a tenth the size, really round numbers).  Over at the NE corner, Texarcana, is about 800 iles south of Chicago.  Off to the west, El Paso is about 800 miles east of LA.

So, weather in one area is nothing like weather in another.  We are celebrating Labour Day this weekend in the US.  Our UK friends will better understand this as a "bank" holiday.  For a portion of the US, it's the end of Summer, and the beginning of fall (those places are generally above about 36ºN latitude).  Here in Texas is means the temepratures will have oderated gtom high 90s to only mid 90s.  Our "fall" occurs closer to Novemeber.  In Montana, it means that snow is possible any day.

It's an aazing thing.

As of today we've lost 2.3 M acres this year.

not having as many inmates available is one problem.

From where I sit as a land use planner and architect- we do build in the stupidest places sometimes.

Bill

Texas weather can be very unpredictable. One day it's 103F and the next day it's 52F.  I use that as an example because that literally happened last September.  

Weather is weather, no matter where you are. 

As for the size of Texas (and the USA), while living in Longview, Texas, which is in East Texas about 50 miles from the state line, I thought of visiting Big Springs, Texas.  Now I am originally from Birmingham, Alabama and the drive there on Interstate all the way took about 8 hours, and that's three states east.  I found using a trip estimator that getting to Big Springs would take 8 hours by Interstate also, and it was in the same state!

Gary

Here on Streetsboro, Ohio we've had a very comfortable and pleasing summer season.  My brother on the other hand (Of which whom is a EMT in Palm Springs) has mentioned huge fires whithin his jurisdiction in Riverside County.  But I worry more of his transporting COVID 19 emergency calls than anything.

Your friend's, Toshi & Ezra

747 944 working the fire down here in San Diego

Its called climate change.  Severe storms, floods and droughts will get increasingly worse.

GMorrison

not having as many inmates available is one problem. 

Thats the will of the voting population of the state. 

Yes self included. I am not advocating that its any direct cause and effect more like unintended consequences.

Now we are stuck in a cycle where fire smoke conributes to global warming, which contributes to fires etc.

We're heading into Spring now and whilst I'm looking forward to Summers warmth and sunshine, am not looking forward to the fire season. It was pretty desperate here in East Gippsland last summer. Mind you I had the pleasure of drinking with some of the American fire crews. Great bunch of people, hated a beer, and introduced me to chewing tobacco. Interesting but I think I'll stick to alcohol.

Well, right now, visibility is down to about a half mile due to the smoky conditions. We've got a long burn going on about twenty miles north-west of us and I'm sure the fire crews are not having a good day with this wind. Even the birds are acting strange in these conditions.

Hoo Yah...

I'm just over the hill from you.  Had a little fire (18 acres) last weekend on our way up for 10 days of camping and mining.  Scheduled to come back tomorrow but we got buried in smoke this afternoon and bailed.... No idea where it was coming from and in a canyon with one way in and out.  Back home the smoke is just as bad...coming in from the warm springs and beachie fires on the east wind.  Half mile visibility at the best.

We talked to a deputy sheriff about the little fire...was started by a boat safety flare that some idiot shot off.  Was a miracle they got it stopped that quick...no roads..had to ferry crews and equipment about 2 miles by boat across the lake.  Terrain mostly vertical, timber and brush.

GMorrison

Yes self included. I am not advocating that its any direct cause and effect more like unintended consequences. 

The results were there to be seen for anybody who knows how the system works, and what would change with the laws enacted by the voters. Or for those who looked into it. The reduced inmate fire crews are just part of the ripple effect.

GMorrison

Yes self included. I am not advocating that its any direct cause and effect more like unintended consequences.

Now we are stuck in a cycle where fire smoke conributes to global warming, which contributes to fires etc.

 

Yep, it is called positive feedback.  While positive feedback is good in social interactions, it can be a wicked thing in a servo control system, including natural ones.  While any particular incident cannot be attributed to CC, it can affect the environment to change the statistics.  I hope this is not too political- if it is I will abstain further.

In Denver, it's right now, 32 degrees Fahrenheit and rainy, snowy,  September 8,  2020.  It was 98 degrees yesterday.  Geeeez.

Hi Dodgy;

       Aha! Here in Texas, Down by the Mexican Border, I am actually in the Hill Country near Canyon Lake, it's hot and clear one day 105 is the highest so far, Or it's 78 and Rainy. So Far So Good !

GMorrison

As of today we've lost 2.3 M acres this year.

not having as many inmates available is one problem.

From where I sit as a land use planner and architect- we do build in the stupidest places sometimes.

 

 

Bill

 

I have been studying Google Earth and look at certian areas to see how populated they have become over the last twenty years.  What was a sand bar on the coast is now a community crammed full of million dollar homes.  What shocks me is how much building is going on in the mountains in areas that are prone to heavy snow pack, mud slides, and fire storms.  I say we must have more money than brains in thinking we can out design mother nature. 

Yeah, I look at Southern California and you get a fire...they save the homes and come winter rains you get the mud slide since nothing is left to hold ground together.  Down comes the homes and they rebuild in the same spot...5-10 years later the cycle repeats when the brush takes back over.

We now have mandatory evacs in about 4 towns about 25 miles north of us....the cause of the smoke that caused us to bail a day early yesterday.  The 2 larger fires look like they may merge with the east winds forecasted for the next day or so since they are 3 miles apart.  The eastern fire is headed for another 2 small towns and they are on short notice.