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ilanaramaIf you know where I live - Durango, CO - you may know that we are currently on fire. I am not personally burning, at the moment, but the "416 Fire" ten miles north of town has grown from 50 acres on June 1st, when it was started by (presumably, and supported by eyewitness accounts, but not officially) cinders from our coal-fired historical tourist train, to over 22,000 acres as of today.
Here's a photo from near our new house-in-progress on the afternoon after it started:
And here's a photo from more or less the same place on June 9th:
Yesterday (June 10th) we went up to Animas City Mountain at the north end of town (the long green mesa on the left side of the above photos;blnchflr, this is where we walked and you petted ALL THE DOGS; catbear, I believe we hiked there with you also, when you were in town oh so long ago) and hiked to the far northwest point where we took more pictures. A few days ago a second fire, called the Burro Fire, started about 13 miles west of the 416 fire as the crow flies, and that's the plume on the left side of the pano photo below. It's not nearly as big - as of today it's 1000 acres - but it's in very rugged terrain with a lot of fuels.
As I mentioned above, the fire's ten miles north of town, and my house(s) aren't in any immediate danger. The real problem is the air quality. As is typical in the springtime it's quite breezy during the day, blowing those magnificent plumes to the north and east (and incidentally making it tougher on the firefighters). But after dark, the wind dies off, and the smoke drifts down the valley into town. It's been really bad for the last four or five days. Normally we have the windows open at night; now we have installed our bedroom window air conditioner (that we usually don't put in until late June) and run it with the filters on so we can keep the house air a little cleaner. Unfortunately it's an old house, and not very tight, so smoke still seeps in, and both Britt and I have been waking up with headaches every morning.
How bad is it? Well, here's some photographic evidence from this morning at 6:30 am, looking east, south, and west:
Fortunately when the wind picks up in the afternoon the smoke blows out, as you can see from the same photos taken at 2:30pm:
The mountain you can see in the middle view of the second set (and can't see in the first), is just a little over a mile away; the one in the right view is a bit under two miles away. Here's a second set of photos taken from the campus webcam at the college, which is up on the mesa where our new house is. These are looking down into town; the white sky in the second one is, I think, an artifact of the position of the sun, but I think there still is a bit of smoke haze in the air.
Needless to say, I'm not running in this! It's actually dangerous in the morning, and by the time the smoke clears enough that it would be reasonable to run, it's too hot. Fortunately I still have some entries left on my rec center pass that I bought when I was injured last fall, so I've been riding my bike up a little before noon and running on the treadmill. (Actually today I drove, as it was still smoky by 11:30 and I didn't want to breathe any more of that stuff than I had to.) The treadmill is SO BORING. But at least I'm getting some fake-running in.
We are all doing rain dances, though the earliest possible precipitation in the forecast is looking like this weekend, courtesy of Hurricane Bud. Nobody's surprised by this fire, I should point out - we had an unusually warm and dry winter and spring, with a fraction of our usual snowfall in the mountains - and the southwest monsoon, which brings afternoon rainstorms, doesn't kick in until early July. The county was under fire restrictions, and there had been a number of small fires that had flared and been put out, making us all nervous. With only 10% containment currently (and zero on the Burro fire) it's going to take more than a few rainstorms to make a difference.
I heard rumors it's been raining a lot over on the east coast. Can you guys pack that rain up and send it over, please? :-)
Here's a photo from near our new house-in-progress on the afternoon after it started:
And here's a photo from more or less the same place on June 9th:
Yesterday (June 10th) we went up to Animas City Mountain at the north end of town (the long green mesa on the left side of the above photos;
blnchflr, this is where we walked and you petted ALL THE DOGS; catbear, I believe we hiked there with you also, when you were in town oh so long ago) and hiked to the far northwest point where we took more pictures. A few days ago a second fire, called the Burro Fire, started about 13 miles west of the 416 fire as the crow flies, and that's the plume on the left side of the pano photo below. It's not nearly as big - as of today it's 1000 acres - but it's in very rugged terrain with a lot of fuels. As I mentioned above, the fire's ten miles north of town, and my house(s) aren't in any immediate danger. The real problem is the air quality. As is typical in the springtime it's quite breezy during the day, blowing those magnificent plumes to the north and east (and incidentally making it tougher on the firefighters). But after dark, the wind dies off, and the smoke drifts down the valley into town. It's been really bad for the last four or five days. Normally we have the windows open at night; now we have installed our bedroom window air conditioner (that we usually don't put in until late June) and run it with the filters on so we can keep the house air a little cleaner. Unfortunately it's an old house, and not very tight, so smoke still seeps in, and both Britt and I have been waking up with headaches every morning.
How bad is it? Well, here's some photographic evidence from this morning at 6:30 am, looking east, south, and west:
Fortunately when the wind picks up in the afternoon the smoke blows out, as you can see from the same photos taken at 2:30pm:
The mountain you can see in the middle view of the second set (and can't see in the first), is just a little over a mile away; the one in the right view is a bit under two miles away. Here's a second set of photos taken from the campus webcam at the college, which is up on the mesa where our new house is. These are looking down into town; the white sky in the second one is, I think, an artifact of the position of the sun, but I think there still is a bit of smoke haze in the air.
Needless to say, I'm not running in this! It's actually dangerous in the morning, and by the time the smoke clears enough that it would be reasonable to run, it's too hot. Fortunately I still have some entries left on my rec center pass that I bought when I was injured last fall, so I've been riding my bike up a little before noon and running on the treadmill. (Actually today I drove, as it was still smoky by 11:30 and I didn't want to breathe any more of that stuff than I had to.) The treadmill is SO BORING. But at least I'm getting some fake-running in.
We are all doing rain dances, though the earliest possible precipitation in the forecast is looking like this weekend, courtesy of Hurricane Bud. Nobody's surprised by this fire, I should point out - we had an unusually warm and dry winter and spring, with a fraction of our usual snowfall in the mountains - and the southwest monsoon, which brings afternoon rainstorms, doesn't kick in until early July. The county was under fire restrictions, and there had been a number of small fires that had flared and been put out, making us all nervous. With only 10% containment currently (and zero on the Burro fire) it's going to take more than a few rainstorms to make a difference.
I heard rumors it's been raining a lot over on the east coast. Can you guys pack that rain up and send it over, please? :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 01:15 am (UTC)(And on a side note, the lad saw an opportunity for a teaching exchange with someone in Silverton and we were tempted by it, but sadly the financial disadvantages outweighed the fun/educational aspects.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 02:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 02:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 03:36 am (UTC)From what I understand, they have a satellite and lose connectivity when it's on the other side of the planet.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 05:23 am (UTC)That smokey haze looks sadly familiar from the Napa fires last year, only worse :(
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-12 07:08 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think that the topography here and the nighttime calms make the overnight smoke worse. I just ordered a HEPA air purifier which I hope will make things a little less nasty in the house, anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-13 12:00 am (UTC)I'm glad you're personally out of range, and hope that rain comes rushing down mysteriously out of somewhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-13 02:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-13 12:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-13 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-17 07:58 am (UTC)I have a tough time with the day after St. John's (bonfires) and the day after New Year's (fireworks), when the air is noticeably smokier - I can't imagine breathing smokey air for days on end :( !
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-17 04:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-25 11:59 pm (UTC)I hope they get a hold of it for the benefit of all concerned.
We got lucky with the fires in Glacier National Park on our way to Spokane for the WorldCon in 2015. The day we went to the top of the Road to the Sun a line rainstorms and a wind change cleared out the areas we were in.
We didn't get as lucky in Spokane itself which basically surrounded and the smoke was "block the sun" thick. The air quality indoors was getting questionable after a few days.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-26 04:33 pm (UTC)We bought a HEPA air purifier which helps a lot at night, when the AQ gets bad. Our house is old enough that it's far from airtight. We did have a break after the rainy weekend, but things are perking up again and right now I'm waiting for the AQ to improve before biking up to the gym to run on the treadmill...