Fire Season

The very unusual lightning storms over much of the Bay Area very early Sunday morning and today led to at least seven or more fires around the area. The very dry hillsides are primed to burn. We definitely don’t need to start any more fires!

Since 1995 I’ve experienced a total of three lightning events: one in December ’95, one in late September 2001 and the latest one starting around 3 AM Sunday morning. The one on Sunday kept going in the South Bay until about 8 AM with a lot of spectacular strikes every few minutes accompanied by booming thunder and some very sporadic and light rain. The whole event was preceded by very high winds which resulted in a lot of downed trees.

Fires all around us in Chico.  It’s August.

In central Colorado the smoke is so thick you can put a fork in it. Yes, it’s August and it is tinder dry.

This is an interesting air quality map:  https://fire.airnow.gov/?lat=37.27367000000004&lng=-107.87929999999994&zoom=12#

Heat wave here in California. Possibility of power outages – usually power can be purchased from other regions, but there is not any for sale…

As @olddude suggested, there’s no way to forget that it’s fire season here in central CO. The air quality is awful, and my eyes, sinuses, and throat are suffering. Many fairly reliable drainages in the Weminuche and Uncompaghre are completely dry. Wildflower season was sparse. Good news … no bugs all summer. The contrast between 2019 and 2020 has been incredibly stark in every way.

The view from my classroom at the college this evening. The fire is 20-30 miles away. Big fire.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3TbJYsfLyRZB6buA6

Just returned from a few days fishing on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The valley we were in filled with smoke each day, and the tent had a light coating of ash.  We could see billowing smoke.   It was a little spooky.   The tundra above treeline is bone dry, crunchy actually, and many of the small seeps and drainages that usually contain water along the trail were dry.  When we came out, we saw that trails and campsites west of the Colorado River in the Park are closed.

Montana has lucked out so far; a few fires but overall very mild fire season (thus far anyways-knock on wood).  We’re still riding on good June precip, but it’s been very sparse to non-existant since the 2nd week of July- it’s also been averaging 10-15 degrees above normal- lots of 90’s and even a couple triple digits here in West Central Montana.  We’re supposed to see a bit of a cool down, mid-week next week.  You know it’s been hot when you’re looking forward to low 80’s!

Terrible air quality in Santa Barbara. Fires to the south of us, fires to the north of us. Stuck in the middle.

“Stuck in the middle.”

but not with me…. :-)

Surrounded here in Chico. Air quality is dangerous. My first two day weekend in a month and everywhere I want to go has terrible air quality or is too hot. Poor me.

You know, fire season used to mean the part of the year when fire danger was high. Now it means the part of the year when everything is on fire and the air is filled with smoke and ash.

I live near the top of a mesa 5 miles east of Boulder, CO. For 30 years I have enjoyed my perfect patio view of our local “magic mountain”, Longs Peak. Because of the eastward drift of the smoke from 4 or 5 fires in the state, I haven’t seen Longs for nearly a week. And we’re having a lot of ozone mucking up the air as well. Most of the state’s mountain areas are under fire bans of course. We desperately need some good rain.

But it seems like California has taken a much bigger hit, with strong winds, 100* F heat, and a weird and rare thing called a “Firenado,” which is where a tornado cruised through an active burn and picked up burning trees, etc. I’d never heard of such a thing.

My buddy thinks that God is getting even with us for all the wild and crazy things we did back in the ’80s.

Right now there are seven major wildfires within 100 air miles of my home, totalling more than 300,000 acres. Most of them are “out of control” with evacs and (some) structure defense only. The closest is about 12 miles away, getting closer daily, and it’s hard to stop scanning web sites looking for updates. That fire alone should have five times as many firefighters, but we’ve run out.

Almost 50,000 people evacuated in our small county. County just ordered all visitors out of hotels and vacation rentals to make room. Several sets of friends have had to evacuate, some have asked if they can stay in our tiny home, while we’re lining up our own evac options. Air quality varies from really bad to terrible. Both my wife and I have almost continuous headaches and some dry coughing, despite running a good HEPA filter on High 24/7.

The sun varies from orange to red throughout the day. More (very rare) thunderstorms in the forecast could start even more wildfires. Local NWS forecast discussions have ballooned from a couple of paragraphs to 1,500 word essays.

Coronavirus. Economic collapse. Elections. Wildfires.

And this morning a young deer dropped dead 10 feet from our back door, with no apparent injuries.

“May you live in interesting times” is getting old, fast.

Still – we’re relatively privileged and fortunate. Many millions/billions of people I wouldn’t want to swap with.

— Rex

Rex and others in harm’s way, good luck and hang in there.   The inconvenience of our poor air quality pales in comparison to threats of losing lives and homes.

Is a Colorado Trail trip a bad idea now? I’m in the preliminary planning stage and don’t have a section nailed down. Probably nearer to Denver to limit transport costs.

Pretty smoky along the front range. Sections 6-1 going towards Denver  have been alternating between pretty smoky to not horrible depending on wind direction.  Today is not too nice around mountains Denver to the Springs.

Thanks bjc. After posting I realized I’d better get started on my research so I checked out the FB page. Seems like a toss up and maybe I should head elsewhere.

Today’s update:

Over 1/3 of county population is under mandatory evacuation orders. More schools, churches, and parking lots opening daily to accomodate evacuees. Good news is firefighters built a several-mile-long firebreak to help protect the university and largest city.

Bad news is NWS forecasts that the winds will make a major shift tonight. Good news is we might get clean(er) air for a few hours, until we get smoke from a different fire. And we have a Red Flag warning for dry lightning and erratic thunderstorm winds along more than 250 miles of the California coast and well inland, starting tomorrow morning and running for a few days.

Next county north, with temporarily cleaner air, is pleading with smoked-out inland visitors to stay home, leaving roads and accommodations open for firefighters and evacuees.

Multiple reports of firefighters nearing complete exhaustion, asking for more help, with little relief on the horizon. Many historic (for California) structures in the forests are gone. Easily hundreds of homes destroyed or seriously damaged, but agencies are too busy fighting fires to do a complete count. Sheriffs arrested five people yesterday with cars full of stolen loot from evacuated homes. And that’s just for one wildfire.

Yesterday I dragged the dead deer a little further uphill into the forest to let nature take its course. Vultures are working on it now. Working hard in dirty air left me exhausted for hours. Judy went shopping today, reports the streets and stores are unusually empty, with many shops unexpectedly closed.

Last night realized that a major section of every long backpacking trip I’d taken in the last 15 years, had burned in the previous five days. Won’t be repeating some of my favorite treks for a long time.

— Rex

Today’s update:

Fog rolled in last night, and both Judy and I were thrilled – though we often complain. For the first time in almost a week we opened the windows and breathed fresh air for a few hours. This morning, smoke again.

Our local fire benefited from cooler weather at lower elevations, and didn’t spread much overnight. Still, two bits of shocking news this morning.

Some creep broke into a fire commander’s truck in an evac zone, stole his wallet, and emptied his bank account. Unbelievable.

And four miles of water main burned up yesterday, draining half-a-million stored gallons from a small water district on the front lines. They’ve rerouted remaining water to the most important fire hydrants but cut off other (evacuated) areas. Water district contractors can’t start repairs until the plastic pipe stops burning.

More than 1,200 square miles have burned within 100 miles of here in the last week. Two of those fires are #2 and #3 on the state’s largest fire list. None of the fires have enough resources. Smoke from California appears to be blowing as far east as Minnesota and Oklahoma.

Weather outlook is still potentially grim – dry lightning and erratic thunderstorm winds in the forecast. Radar shows the first storm is just an hour or two away. County advised evacuees living in tents to move into shelter buildings for safety. Rough trade-offs with covid distancing!

Some of our favorite day hiking destinations have burned or have new bulldozer lines running through them.

So it goes.

Thanks to the BPL community for supporting Kat on GoFundMe!

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/gofundme-for-bpler-kat-due-to-california-fires

— Rex

FWIW, donations have been closed for Kat’s GoFundMe.

“Some creep broke into a fire commander’s truck in an evac zone, stole his wallet, and emptied his bank account. Unbelievable.”

I try not to wish bad on anyone, I’m a karma kinda guy. But people like this really test me in this area…

Yeah

And the 5 looters arrested

What is wrong with people?

Geeze, Rex, I am so sad about what is happening. I’m about 100 miles south of you. The air is dirty here. I looked at the dead twigs on some of our trees and shrubs in a different, smoky light. Cut them all off and piled the tinder in the trailer.