Wildfires

[Dave]

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the west is on fire (although you wouldn't know by the national news). Montana has about 40 out of control fires. Oregon about 15. Washington has 8 or 10. I don't know how many Idaho has. No rain in sight. Lots of the fires they say will burn until the snow flies.
On Saturday a couple of boys started a fire playing with fireworks near the Bonneville Dam. It instantly grew out of control trapping about 150 hikers who had gone up a trail to a popular waterfall/swimming hole. The hikers (day hikers) ended up spending the night and having to take a very difficult route to get out of the mountains. Well yesterday the fire jumped the Columbia River. How do you build a fire break or stop a fire when it jumps a river that is probably about a mile wide? The area in Washington that the fire is now headed toward is the area of one of the biggest wildfires in the states history. That was years ago so now it is covered with thick second growth with no natural fire breaks for miles.
Hats off to the environmentalist who shut down logging and grazing. We are now reaping the benefits of their actions.

 

[D2Cat]

Last night the sun looked foggy from about 6PM to dark. Weather folks say it from the smoke in the air from the Western states. 58 fires in California....

 

[kenny thomas]

Its so much they are running out of crews to send. So many of us being in South Texas doesnt help.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the west is on fire (although you wouldn't know by the national news).

I've been thinking about all of you folks, out that way, with all the fires. The local news outlet that I listen to (on the radio) mentions the fires daily.

I remember a few years ago, one of the ones that Kathie posted about, numerous times.
What's going on out there, scares me more than the flooding does.

Hats off to the environmentalist who shut down logging and grazing. We are now reaping the benefits of their actions.

No matter how many times I have tried to explain this kind of thing, to some people, they just don't get it. 9 times out of 10, they are folks who have spent the majority of their lives in suburbs, cities and well-groomed trails in parks.

I really hope y'all get some rain----------- SOON. (or snow!)

 

[Katpau]

There are 29 large fires burning in Oregon as of today and many more small ones. They are predicting dry lightning tomorrow, so that means more will start most likely. The smoke has been choking me and burning my lungs for days. It is bad even inside the house. The schools canceled all games and all outdoor activities are strongly discouraged. Smoke was so thick the last week that the sun looked like a pale red glow and I can't see any of the surrounding hills when looking out my front window. Even the barn which is just a few 100 feet from the house is in a thick gray haze. The air quality has been running between extremely inhealthy and hazardous. They said on the weather report that the particulates in the air were so high they could not measure them with the device they used. It went as high as it could go, but it was not high enough.

The biggest fire is South East of us and is at about 150,000 acres. That one was less than an acre when first started by lighning about a month ago, but it was in wilderness so they were not allowed to fight it. Had to wait until it came out of the wildernss onto private land and then it burned at least 9 homes. It was stopped short of the coastal towns but not before many were evacuated. It has now traveled all of the way across the coastal mountains and they have issued an evacuation for anyone West of 199.

Close to home are the Umpqua Complex at over 25,000 acres and the the Horse Prarie fire that just stated a week ago, but has already consumed almost 15,000 acres of timber. That one is threatening Riddle and Glendale and evacuation orders have been issued for many rural homes. It has been really hot with many temperatures in the 100's for the last week. There are not enough people available to fight these fires so all they can do is attempt to protect homes.

 

[Katpau]

Here is a map of the largest fires in Western Oregon. The Chetco fire in South East Oregon has actually burned an area from the coast to Hwy 199, so that little flame shown on the map makes it look much smaller than it really is.

 

[Dave]

I am miles away from the nearest fire but the sun has just been a red ball all day today. Kathie is about 25 miles from the Jolly Mountain fire and she says visibility is less than 2 miles. They say that there was an inch of ash on everything in Portland this morning from the Eagle Creek fire. I-84 going through the Columbia Gorge is closed down. Highway 14 on the Washington side of the river is closed to vehicles over 10,000 GVW. I just talked to a guy who came through there he said cars coming out of the evacuation area look like they had been in Mt. St. Helen.
And there is no relieve in sight. I never thought I would say it but we need some of those low pressure storms out of the Gulf of Alaska to line up one after the other.

 

[Nesikep]

Smoke has been getting worse and worse here, probably from your fires, though pretty much anything except a west wind will bring us smoke.. 25,000 acre fires are considered small at this point, we have dozens of them, several over 500,000 acres, and one over a million acres...
On the bright side, we haven't had the bright sun that always scalded our tomatoes this year, so the maters are beautiful!