Arizona Wildfires

[MarkBC]

Anybody here near enough to be affected by -- or had a trip affected by -- the fires in eastern Arizona? Sounds really bad.

I just snagged this satellite view, which shows them clearly:

This is from my favorite satellite view link: Western Visible

Click on an area of the image (from the link, not the image posted here) and it opens the magnified view for that region (image map is a little screwed up, so you have to click to the left of the area you're interested in.)
This is the view in visible light, so there's nothing to see at night.

 

[highz]

It is bad. Both those fires are in areas I hold dear, and much will not recover in my lifetime.

We are dealing with some smaller fires in New Mexico - starting to see some started by lightning, but nothing like the Wallow and Horseshoe Two fires yet - and I hope it stays that way.

Air quality is pretty bad over most of New Mexico, worse in the northern half of the state. Albuquerque has air quality alerts in force.

The Horseshoe Two fire has burned a large part of the Chiricahuas. I understand there will be a survey of Elegant Trogons as soon as it is safe. This was their habitat above the border, and now much of it is gone. Some structures have burned as well, I hear.

The big Wallow fire threatened Apache trout habitat. I don't know how much they were able to protect. Last I heard, five structures had burned and many more were threatened. Lots of evacuations going on. The fire will cross into New Mexico soon. Maybe it already has.

 

[craig333]

Summer is finally starting here. Maybe some of that moisture will travel that way now.

 

[Barko1]

Summer is finally starting here. Maybe some of that moisture will travel that way now.


We got our first trace of rain the other night, after about 6 months. I had plans to go to Alpine and ride 191 South, a great bike road, but obviously that is out. The whole Coronado National Forest closes Thursday, thought about camping today and tomorrow but opted not too. It will be hard for these areas to recover as they get so little precip anyway. Chiricahuas closed. Lincoln National Forest closed, now all of Southern AZ, Gila is still open with restriction. Hopefully the little precip we have seen is a good sign for the future.

 

[Desert Rancher]

Brings back memories of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodeo%E2%80%93Chediski_Fire

USFS closed every forest in AZ and blocked each and every entrance. We had gone to AZ for a week of camping around Williams and had to turn back.

Fire info can be found here:
http://inciweb.org/

 

[chnlisle]

It's terrible here. Tucson is quite safe but just a 30 mile trip down the 19 and you can see the smoke and smell the fire. And that's just one of the fires. Up in the White Mountains it's getting worse and in the Chiricahuas the area around Rodeo doesn't seem to have and end in sight. The Catalinas near my place is now closed to overnights and the rangers have already cited several idiots for using campfires.

 

[ski3pin]

My brother in Colorado Springs has said that smoke from the SW fires are affecting them.

 

[MarkBC]

My brother in Colorado Springs has said that smoke from the SW fires are affecting them.

Yeah, a friend of mine who lives in C.S. says, "...impossible to see the mountains for days now...awful!" because of the smoke.

 

[busboy66]

NASA - link to fires burning in USA:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/usa/index.html

Specific to Horseshoe 2 and Wallow North:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/usa/20110603-arizona.html

 

[Desert Rancher]

USFS finally woke up and called for help. Tanker 10 will do the job.

An awesome sight to see

http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/communications_newsreleases_DC_10_To_Arizona.php

http://www.10tanker.com/

 

[chnlisle]

Day late and dollar short. between Jan Brewer waiting to ask for help and the USFS sitting on their administrative hands half the state has burned.

 

[Barko1]

Day late and dollar short. between Jan Brewer waiting to ask for help and the USFS sitting on their administrative hands half the state has burned.


Well actually less than .5%, not quite 50%. Sadly Rustler Park was burned in the horseshoe fire.

 

[craig333]

You can't ask for help too soon. With CA not having a bad season you wonder why resources weren't called upon earlier.

 

[Barko1]

Here is a pic from last night. The smoke is from the Horseshoe 2 fire that is in the Chiricahuas (150 miles as the crow flies) or another fire further South along the Mexican border. Still there this morning.

 

[Steve Scearce]

We're getting smoke intermittently up in Durango, 250 miles away from the Wallow Fire... as the smoke flies. Monday was so bad you couldn't see the La Plata Mountains from downtown Durango, less than 10 aerial miles away. Since then the wind has shifted. On Wednesday I drove to Bayfield and could see a wall of smoke to the south along the NM border.

This brings back bad memories from 2002. We live on the edge of the Missionary Ridge Fire. It was a war zone, complete with National Guard roadblocks and an airforce of tankers and helicopters overhead. We had fist-sized embers dropping into our yard when the fire made a run close to us... 100 yards away. We survived the fire only to get smacked by two flashfloods that came once monsoon season started.

I feel for those in the impacted communities. Forest fires are a brutal reality of life in the West.

 

[Argonaut20]

Went to a wedding in Sonora, CA traveling through the Eager/Springerville area on the way up. Winds traveling in to Flag were ferocious (headwinds 30 to 50 mph). The wedding was in the open air in rainy weather where the temperature was around 45 to 50 degrees. Coming home, we had to go from Flag to Albuquerque rather than the route through Eager. The winds and the idiocy of some camper had made the Eager area untenable. Traveling through Arizona and New Mexico was a real smoke house trip. Some areas had visibility less than 3 miles due to the smoke. Oh yeah, headwinds galore as we headed south from Albuquerque. For the mileage thread, down to 12 mpg in the headwinds, 17+ when the breezes were behind us.

 

[craig333]

At least in So.Cal when the santa ana's are blowing theres a natural fire break, the pacific ocean. The sheer size is stunning.

 

[Barko1]

The winds and the idiocy of some camper had made the Eager area untenable.


Can't really pin down the cause but the odds are that at least the other 2 fires South of there were caused by illegal immigration. They started in drug corridors and really no one else travels back there. They cook on fires and the coyotes aren't really into "leave no trace".