Smoky skies
19/07/14 05:36
I have been told that all of the smoke in the skies around here is from wildfires in Utah. The jet stream is stirring the air over the west in such a way that the smoke is being carried up fromt he southwest instead of its usual flow from the northwest. It looks, however, like a shift in the wind direction might bring more, not less smoke into our area.
The Utah wildfires are mostly in the southern part of the state. Everything is tinder dry down there and they have had a real spell of hot weather throughout the month of July. By the time kit gets to us, we could also be getting smoke from fires burning in Nevada and California as well.
Firefighters in Washington, Oregon and Idaho have their hands full, too. On the eastern slope of the Cascades, just north of Leavenworth, the Chiwaukum Creek fire has sent its smoke plume as high as 25,000 feet in the air. That’s high enough to be seen from Seattle. The fire is burning in heavy timber and conditions are brutal for firefighters. Temperatures have been over 100 degrees in a place that isn’t used to such warm temperatures. One report that I read said that residents of 860 homes have been evacuated with another 800 homes considered to be threatened. The governor of Washington has declared a disaster for 30 eastern counties and called up the National Guard to help fight the blazes.
The areas where the fires are burning are very close to territory where we love to camp and explore. We drove through the region a couple of weeks ago with daytime highs in the seventies. It turned hot after we got home.
The fires have largely been started by lightning. One of the Washington fires is over 35 square miles and a long ways from containment.
In Oregon, the Waterman Complex has blackened more than 4,000 acres of timber, grass and brush. In the rugged and remote territory of central Idaho they named the big fire “Preacher.” The Preacher fire was growing by about 25 square miles a day earlier this week. In Boise, where we lived for a decade, the skies are more smoky than here. Smoke from the Whiskey Complex dropped visibility to under 2 miles earlier this week.
Resources are pouring into the region from across the nation. Just from conversations with folks around here I have heard of a 20-man hand crew and at least four other firefighters from the hills that are on their way to the fires in the northwest. One firefighter commented tongue-in-cheek that the entire nation would probably start tilting toward the northwest with all of the iron going there in the form of fire trucks and other equipment.
With thunder rumbling through the hills as I write this morning, I am aware that those hot, dry conditions that are creating havoc to the northwest are heading our way. Our ten-day forecast calls for highs in the low 90’s next week. That isn’t extreme for this part of the country in mid July, but we have been enjoying lower than normal temperatures for much of the summer and we’re going to have to adjust.
We know that our forests can dry quickly and that the large number of trees killed by beetles means that there is plenty of fuel for large fires in the hills. So far we have been lucky, but luck can change quickly.
Insect infestations, rapidly changing weather conditions and wildfire are all part of living in the forest. We know that the natural cycles of the forest include the periodic destruction of standing timber and the replacement of old trees with new ones. We also know that our interventions and attempts at forest management haven’t always been successful. Excessive fire fighting led to high fuel loads. Really big fire complexes such as the Yellowstone fires of 1988 and 1989 were in part the result of 25 years of extinguishing every fire that occurred as quickly as possible. When we didn’t allow the forest’s natural processes of thinning occur and we didn’t thin ourselves the fuel loads became really high. Some previous logging practices have led to areas of the forest where all of the trees are the same age, vulnerable to the same diseases and at a higher risk for fire than if the logging had been done on a more selective basis. Often our attempts at forest management were undertaken with incomplete information and a lack of understanding of the large cycles of a healthy forest.
And more than a few of us have built our homes in the wrong place. Those gorgeous homes tucked in the trees with winding gravel roads for access and dense forest on every side make wonderful places to live and are really vulnerable to wildfire. Neighborhoods like the one where we live, with houses clustered, trees thinned and more open space are easier for the firefighters to defend in the case of a wildfire heading in our direction.
The thing about smoky skies is that I hesitate to complain. I don’t like all of the smoke. It makes me sneeze and it cuts down on the beautiful view to which we have become accustomed. But for now all we’ve got is the smoke. The folks living west of us are facing the threat of the flames. There can be a lot of fire season after July. It could easily be two or three months before winter storms come along to help put out the big complexes in the most remote areas. So far the firefighters have been able to protect most of the homes, but there will be people who lose their homes this summer. And there will be injuries to firefighters. Even the best trained and best equipped firefighters face significant risk on every fire.
I’m going to do my best to avoid complaining. We have had a lovely summer so far. I haven’t had to water my lawn yet. We just started watering at the church. Our temperatures have been comfortable and we had a wonderful vacation with lovely weather.
Instead of complaining, I’ll be praying for those whose lives are far more uncomfortable than ours. Be careful out there. It is a wild and dangerous world.
The Utah wildfires are mostly in the southern part of the state. Everything is tinder dry down there and they have had a real spell of hot weather throughout the month of July. By the time kit gets to us, we could also be getting smoke from fires burning in Nevada and California as well.
Firefighters in Washington, Oregon and Idaho have their hands full, too. On the eastern slope of the Cascades, just north of Leavenworth, the Chiwaukum Creek fire has sent its smoke plume as high as 25,000 feet in the air. That’s high enough to be seen from Seattle. The fire is burning in heavy timber and conditions are brutal for firefighters. Temperatures have been over 100 degrees in a place that isn’t used to such warm temperatures. One report that I read said that residents of 860 homes have been evacuated with another 800 homes considered to be threatened. The governor of Washington has declared a disaster for 30 eastern counties and called up the National Guard to help fight the blazes.
The areas where the fires are burning are very close to territory where we love to camp and explore. We drove through the region a couple of weeks ago with daytime highs in the seventies. It turned hot after we got home.
The fires have largely been started by lightning. One of the Washington fires is over 35 square miles and a long ways from containment.
In Oregon, the Waterman Complex has blackened more than 4,000 acres of timber, grass and brush. In the rugged and remote territory of central Idaho they named the big fire “Preacher.” The Preacher fire was growing by about 25 square miles a day earlier this week. In Boise, where we lived for a decade, the skies are more smoky than here. Smoke from the Whiskey Complex dropped visibility to under 2 miles earlier this week.
Resources are pouring into the region from across the nation. Just from conversations with folks around here I have heard of a 20-man hand crew and at least four other firefighters from the hills that are on their way to the fires in the northwest. One firefighter commented tongue-in-cheek that the entire nation would probably start tilting toward the northwest with all of the iron going there in the form of fire trucks and other equipment.
With thunder rumbling through the hills as I write this morning, I am aware that those hot, dry conditions that are creating havoc to the northwest are heading our way. Our ten-day forecast calls for highs in the low 90’s next week. That isn’t extreme for this part of the country in mid July, but we have been enjoying lower than normal temperatures for much of the summer and we’re going to have to adjust.
We know that our forests can dry quickly and that the large number of trees killed by beetles means that there is plenty of fuel for large fires in the hills. So far we have been lucky, but luck can change quickly.
Insect infestations, rapidly changing weather conditions and wildfire are all part of living in the forest. We know that the natural cycles of the forest include the periodic destruction of standing timber and the replacement of old trees with new ones. We also know that our interventions and attempts at forest management haven’t always been successful. Excessive fire fighting led to high fuel loads. Really big fire complexes such as the Yellowstone fires of 1988 and 1989 were in part the result of 25 years of extinguishing every fire that occurred as quickly as possible. When we didn’t allow the forest’s natural processes of thinning occur and we didn’t thin ourselves the fuel loads became really high. Some previous logging practices have led to areas of the forest where all of the trees are the same age, vulnerable to the same diseases and at a higher risk for fire than if the logging had been done on a more selective basis. Often our attempts at forest management were undertaken with incomplete information and a lack of understanding of the large cycles of a healthy forest.
And more than a few of us have built our homes in the wrong place. Those gorgeous homes tucked in the trees with winding gravel roads for access and dense forest on every side make wonderful places to live and are really vulnerable to wildfire. Neighborhoods like the one where we live, with houses clustered, trees thinned and more open space are easier for the firefighters to defend in the case of a wildfire heading in our direction.
The thing about smoky skies is that I hesitate to complain. I don’t like all of the smoke. It makes me sneeze and it cuts down on the beautiful view to which we have become accustomed. But for now all we’ve got is the smoke. The folks living west of us are facing the threat of the flames. There can be a lot of fire season after July. It could easily be two or three months before winter storms come along to help put out the big complexes in the most remote areas. So far the firefighters have been able to protect most of the homes, but there will be people who lose their homes this summer. And there will be injuries to firefighters. Even the best trained and best equipped firefighters face significant risk on every fire.
I’m going to do my best to avoid complaining. We have had a lovely summer so far. I haven’t had to water my lawn yet. We just started watering at the church. Our temperatures have been comfortable and we had a wonderful vacation with lovely weather.
Instead of complaining, I’ll be praying for those whose lives are far more uncomfortable than ours. Be careful out there. It is a wild and dangerous world.