Wildfires 2014

MarkBC

MarkBC

The Weatherman
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Bend, Oregon
A huge swath of forest fire smoke stretches from SW-OR/NW-CA clear up to NE Oregon in this satellite photo from earlier this morning:

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The Beaver Complex, at the Oregon/CA border, looks to be the biggest contributor, but others in northern CA and across central OR must be contributing, too.

Calm winds overnight let the smoke spread un-diluted, so more visible across a broader area.
 
Yep

just love all this smoke, heat, lightning, thunder, and rain-sometime all in the same day :p .Fires to left of me, fires to the right, etc,. :oops: Had an interesting fire here the other day,up on the Diamond Mts south of Susanville, that's the mountains you see to the south as you drive thru Honey Lake Valley (and the end of the Sierra Nevada Mtns-to the north is the start of the Cascades and Modoc Plateau); any way, after the latest thunder and lightning storm you could look out my picture window and see this fire smoking away,near the top :cautious: - just one of the many&, probably doesn't have a name or anything-unless it suddenly takes off down the mountain. It makes you feel sort of small compared to things, especially when the weather guy on Reno TV is showing a live sat. map of the lightning/fire/storm front in a pretty green shade with lot of yellow lightning bolts hitting every where as it passes over where I live :unsure:. Living in the west :love:

Smoke.
 
I could have started this topic a couple of weeks ago -- LOTS of forest/wildfires all across central and eastern Oregon.
A drive from Bend to Portland via US 26 on the evening of July 17, with the sun setting red-ly into the smoke of several fires...looked like something from the end of the world. :unsure: I really should have stopped to take photos -- it would have been more impressive than mere words. But I was in a hurry to get to my destination. :rolleyes:

Most of those major central Oregon fires are mostly contained now, though recent lightning has started a few new small ones.
 
We were very lucky in my neck of New Mexico this year. On June 30 we had a small lightning bust with six or so fires, but conditions were favorable, so they got them all while very small. The largest fire in the Lincoln this season was just under 100 acres, so not bad at all. My stint at the lookout ended two weeks ago, with the lowering of fire danger. We called in a total of five fires (and saw a couple more which were already being fought by the time we could see smoke). Two of the fires we called in were on the Mescalero Apache lands. A light and easy fire season for us, thankfully. Our local hotshots are out in CA at the moment, on the El Portal fire, but it sounds like they will be released from that fire soon.
 
highz said:
...My stint at the lookout ended two weeks ago, with the lowering of fire danger....
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Interesting the difference in climate: In your neck of the woods -- an area that expects and relies on summer rains -- the fire danger is lowering.
But in the Far West -- where summer rain is rare and only associated with lightning, and frequently lightning without rain -- the fire danger just gets worse as summer rolls on and vegetation gets drier and drier. :unsure:
 
Yeah, and in a way it's a good thing, because firefighting resources can be shuffled from one area to another as needed. Firefighters start their season in the southwest and end it in the northwest. It can be a long season for them. I worried that the early season on the west coast would stretch resources too thin.
 
Hope that Diamond Mtn fire isn't near Thompson Peak. That area has burned enough the past couple years. Both of those fires in the Lassen National Forest are burning in areas I'm familiar with. Spent a season at Hat Creek near the Eiler fire. The Day fire is near Little Valley, a place I visited my first season when we did fire inspections there. Rate of spread is phenomenal.

The Sand fire nearer to me burned to within a half mile of my friends house. I saw all those lightning strikes and I started fearing the worst and unfortunately it seems to have come true.
 
:unsure: I really should have stopped to take photos -- it would have been more impressive than mere words. But I was in a hurry to get to my destination. :rolleyes:

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That's sums it up, doesn't it? We were on a marathon drive back from Ketchum, and crossed the Sierra via 80 with heavy smoke from the El Portal fire. We saw smoke beyond Reno to the west, and the smoke was high over Donner Summit, so the local atmosphere was clear as we looked at smoke clouds above. There was backlighting from an obscured sun in a very red evening sky, like nothing I've seen. Yet . . . we dogged it home and didn't get photos :oops: However, we cleared 630 miles in twelve hours that day, so it's always a trade off.

Still, I think it's a matter of retraining to be willing to stop and get the shot, because the moment is fleeting.
 
Lighthawk said:
:unsure: I really should have stopped to take photos -- it would have been more impressive than mere words. But I was in a hurry to get to my destination. :rolleyes:

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That's sums it up, doesn't it? We were on a marathon drive back from Ketchum, and crossed the Sierra via 80 with heavy smoke from the El Portal fire. We saw smoke beyond Reno to the west, and the smoke was high over Donner Summit, so the local atmosphere was clear as we looked at smoke clouds above. There was backlighting from an obscured sun in a very red evening sky, like nothing I've seen. Yet . . . we dogged it home and didn't get photos :oops: However, we cleared 630 miles in twelve hours that day, so it's always a trade off.

Still, I think it's a matter of retraining to be willing to stop and get the shot, because the moment is fleeting.
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Yep...that's for sure. ;)

It really was a unique situation, too... crossing the high plateau of the Warm Springs Reservation I could see at least 3 maybe 4 different fires going -- and the sun was setting into two of them (depending on my angle of view as I drove along).
Oh well...maybe I'll be lucky enough to encounter another apocalyptic/Armageddon situation to photograph again soon... :D
 
The West giveth, and The West taketh away..............

Given the 1,600-1,800 mile distance I must travel before even smelling sagebrush, I may work harder than many to get my Northern Rockies/Great Basin "fix". I love it and would'nt trade summers in Montana and winters on Utah's ski mountains for most anything. It is daunting, however, to realize how quickly the summertime haunts, creeks, shelf roads, and fishing holes can be taken away by wildfire, or even how badly a planned trip can be affected by it. We were in the Rock Creek, MT basin in late July 2000, and on our way out to I-90 and Missoula, we encountered choppers dipping water from the creek. Dry lightning the night before had sparked several fires in the Sapphires and John Longs. Other fires had been popping up in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF in the days prior to. By the time we flew out of Missoula 48 hours after seeing the choppers, most of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF was closed to all visitors. The western MT and northern ID fires of August 2000 then grew to epic proportions. The hallowed Hogback Homestead Cabin was within yards of being consumed before being saved by the firefighters.

Foy
 
Thats the problem with the let it burn policy in the Parks. Fire has its place and most of those high altitude fires never really take off. When they do though they're tough to contain. Where were those pictures taken from? Thats an impressive view.
 
craig333 said:
Thats the problem with the let it burn policy in the Parks. Fire has its place and most of those high altitude fires never really take off. When they do though they're tough to contain. Where were those pictures taken from? Thats an impressive view.
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I got the pictures off the NPS Yosemite Facebook Page
 
craig333 said:
Where were those pictures taken from? That's an impressive view.
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Craig, that photo is taken from Glacier Point and the view is up the Merced River - Little Yosemite Valley. The granite dome in front of the main column is Liberty Cap. That puts the fire to the east of Nevada Falls.
 
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