It must be summer!

[highz]

Uh oh -- I'm hearing thunder outside but not seeing rain ...and you know what that leads to in dry western forests.


Keeping my fingers crossed that you don't have to go what we just went through out here. We're almost one week into monsoon moisture now, and have to worry about floods in the burn scars, but fire fears are reduced.

Actually, just a few days before the monsoon rains started, lightning hit a tree in my backyard, arced to my storage shed and set it on fire. I wasn't home, so missed all the excitement. Thank Gawd a neighbor saw the smoke and called the VFD before the whole neighborhood went up. The shed will need some repair, but the camper jacks and truck tailgate inside were unharmed

Hope you are spared from anything bad.

 

[MarkBC]

Thanks, highz...summer is fire season out here -- that's just the way it is. In the far west we don't get much monsoonal flow -- not enough to add significant moisture, anyway -- just lightning.
Here's a satellite view of what just passed over us:



Sounds like you had quite a close call with that lightning strike!

Glad it wasn't worse.

 

[ski3pin]

<snip>

Sounds like you had quite a close call with that lightning strike!

Glad it wasn't worse.


Yes, glad your lightning strike incident wasn't worse. This has the potential for being a very rough year for the west. A couple of weeks ago I was getting twice a day updates from my brother in Colorado Springs. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

 

[craig333]

Nothing like hearing a forecast of LAL's of six. They'd bring a strike team before the first fire was even spotted. We'd get a good breakfast. Almost exactly at 10am the dispatches would start coming in. Sure hope we avoid looking like Colorado. Or the other states on fire.

 

[highz]

Nothing like hearing a forecast of LAL's of six. They'd bring a strike team before the first fire was even spotted. We'd get a good breakfast. Almost exactly at 10am the dispatches would start coming in. Sure hope we avoid looking like Colorado. Or the other states on fire.

Gack. No 6's please. I don't know what the LAL was when the Little Bear fire started north of my home. I'm sure it wasn't 6, and maybe wasn't even a 3. The fire was contained (I think a strike team WAS at the ready), but then winds kicked up and containment was lost. End result: 242 residences/businesses burned and about a dozen other structures. Not to mention all that beautiful wilderness that suffered high intensity fire... Yeah, I sure hope you don't have to deal with any of that.

 

[MarkBC]

OK, I'll show my ignorance and ask:
What's 'LAL' and '6' on a scale of what?

 

[highz]

Craig can give you the real skinny, but here's a description:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bis/?n=lalinfo

and

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/LAL.php

 

[MarkBC]

Craig can give you the real skinny, but here's a description:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bis/?n=lalinfo

and

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/LAL.php

Thanks, highz, got it.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Musings:

Another hot and windy day (yep way to much wind) with Red flag Alerts, a perfect fire storm day, sans lightning-but rain and thunder storms predicted soon, and everyone hoping we will not become another Colorado or New Mexico. This type of weather makes me glad I'm retired and not being called out on a fire team somewhere! When I was younger it was sort of exciting, and more money for me, but I was glad as I become older and became a resource adviser or even better assigned to a BARE team. I really liked doing fire rehad and over the years we learned how to use fire and mother nature and some seed, to make both a better and safer environment. Then several hot years in a row-a drought, with low snow packs, no money to do controlled burns or fire or bug tree salvage sales and here we are! One of my oak trees went crazy (hot weather and no rain makes them think they are going to die) and is putting limbs on my roof and screwing up my roof tiles and getting close to my electric power line. My tree trimmer tells me he can't keep up with all of the requests he gets to cut down bug or dying trees (someone who benefits from the drought)! I am sure glad you young guys are out there-despite everything else-protecting us old farts so we can drink our vodka and bitch about the weather!

Thanks guys

Smoke

 

[Ted]

Big smoke plume east of me near Colfax. 108 today and windy. Looks like it is our turn.

 

[ski3pin]

Big smoke plume east of me near Colfax. 108 today and windy. Looks like it is our turn.


Shirttail Canyon - leads down into the North Fork American River

 

[Gormley Green]

Interesting phenomenon in BC right now, up here in Squamish it is very hazy! Hazy B.C. skies caused by Russian forest fires

 

[MarkBC]

A couple of big brush-and-grass fires are going -- and growing -- in southeast Oregon right now.

The Miller Homestead fire is in the Catlow Valley SW of Steens Mt.
The extent this afternoon:



The Long Draw fire is between the Steens and the Owyhee country, now touching the western edge of some Owyhee tributary canyons.
The extent this afternoon:

 

[Smokecreek1]

Shirttail Canyon - leads down into the North Fork American River


Got your truck packed with what's important? I remember several years ago had a fire on the Susan River - got out of control, lucky for us it was early in the season (started by target practice with armor piercing ammo), had fire rig's everywhere on each block; it burned down to the street two house's above my house, I was called out by BLM , but with the fire right there, and fire retardant drops on my garage (still can see the red stains), they let me stay home with my hose spraying away, it was stopped and only one house was lost, but we were lucky-and i did do my fire job later, but fire is something you can't ignore and you got to think what you need to put in a box, other than the pets, if and when you have to get out. Scares me to death today, when I spend so much time out and about, can see some headline "retired BLM 'er "starts the fire of the century! what a thought!

Smoke

 

[craig333]

Shirttail fire is at 100 acres. Lucky for us the winds are light, estimated at 5mph. Plus the lack of big fires in CA means there should be adequate resources to knock this one down. If the winds pick up all bets are off.

I think its 85 here in my room. AC in this house sucks. Work is fun, I think I drank five gallons of water today.

 

[highz]

... I am sure glad you young guys are out there-despite everything else-protecting us old farts so we can drink our vodka and bitch about the weather!

Thanks guys

Smoke


Yes indeed! Thanks to all you current and former wildland firefighters!

 

[Smokecreek1]

A couple of big brush-and-grass fires are going -- and growing -- in southeast Oregon right now.

The Miller Homestead fire is in the Catlow Valley SW of Steens Mt.
The extent this afternoon:

View attachment 14747

The Long Draw fire is between the Steens and the Owyhee country, now touching the western edge of some Owyhee tributary canyons.
The extent this afternoon:

View attachment 14748


Boy Mark, sure am glad I put off heading into that country for a week or two to get things done here. Sounds like I would have been in the middle of whole thing! Well there is always later, 400,000 acres is a pretty big fire and they closed some of the cg's on the loop!

Smoke

 

[MarkBC]

Boy Mark, sure am glad I put off heading into that country for a week or two to get things done here. Sounds like I would have been in the middle of whole thing! Well there is always later, 400,000 acres is a pretty big fire and they closed some of the cg's on the loop!

Smoke

Yeah, aside from the real damage wildfires cause, there's the aesthetic effect that the smoke has on the view from high-points: frequently poor-to-no view in the summer.
The time I introduced Craggyman to the Trout Creek Mountains loop road -- which takes you above 8000 feet (which is considered "high" in Oregon), in late summer, all I could tell him was, "Really -- there's a great 360° view from up here -- 3 states!...when there aren't fires burning..."

 

[Smokecreek1]

<br />Yeah, aside from the <i>real </i>damage wildfires cause, there's the aesthetic effect that the smoke has on the view from high-points: frequently poor-to-no view in the summer.<br />The time I introduced Craggyman to the Trout Creek Mountains loop road -- which takes you above 8000 feet (which is considered &quot;high&quot; in Oregon), in late summer, all I could tell him was, &quot;<i>Really </i>-- there's a great 360° view from up here -- 3 states!...when there aren't fires burning...&quot; <img src="http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Can't wait to get back up there-

 

[MarkBC]

Looks like some big-time tropical moisture moving up into the far-southwest right now:



I predict: Thunderstorms!


(From my long-time favorite satellite view: Western Visible-light

Click on it for a higher-resolution view of smaller regions...but their "image map" has been off for years, so you have to click to the left of the region in which you're actually interested.

)

UPDATE 4:30PM PDT:
Yep, lots of big ole cells developing/developed from the Mojave to the Rockies!




Hope some moisture is served with those storms...